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JAN  22  1901 


IRISTIAN 
FE  AND 
lEOLOGY 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California 

Received  ,  i^     . 

Accession  No.  0  3»  <4  C>  oL  -    Class  No.    ^  o  ^ 

— -¥7: 


FOSTER 


Stone  Lectures,    1900 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary 

Christian  Life  &  Theology 

or 

The    Contribution    df 
Christian   Experience 
to  the 
System   of  Evangelical   Doctrine 


BY 

FRANK  HUGH  FOSTER,  Ph.  D.,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR     OF    THEOLOGY    IN    THE     PACIFIC    THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY 


New  York  Chicago  T<ironto 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/christianlifetheOOfostrich 


Christian  Life  and  Theology 


XmrVERSITT 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

The  Fundamental  Ideas 
of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church. 

Explained  and  discussed  for 
Protestants    and    Catholics 

izmo,  cloth,  $1.7$ 


Stone  Lectures,   1900 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary 

Christian  Life  &  Theology 

or 

The    Contribution    of 
Christian  Experience 
to  the 
System   of  Evangelical  Doctrine 


BY 
FRANK  HUGH  FOSTER,  Ph.  D.,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR    OF    THEOLOGY    IN    THE    PACIFIC    THEOLOGICAL 

SEMINARY 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright  1900 
by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


PREFACE 


Many  years  ago  I  saw  in  a  shop  window  in 
Gottingen  a  book  with  the  title :  "  System  of 
Christian  Certainty  ".  I  did  not  read  it ;  but  the 
title  proved  the  fruitful  seed  of  a  course  of 
thought  which  led  me  into  substantial  agreement 
with  its  author,  F.  H.  R.  Frank.  Subsequently  I 
embodied  the  results  of  my  reflection  in  an  arti- 
cle in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra  for  1883  under  the 
title :  "  The  Argument  from  Christian  Experience 
to  the  Inspiration  of  the  Bible  ".  When,  there- 
fore, I  was  honored  by  Princeton  Theological 
Seminary  with  an  invitation  to  deliver  a  course 
of  lectures  upon  the  Stone  foundation,  I  turned 
naturally  to  this  long  followed  line  of  thought  as 
constituting  my  present  message  to  my  times. 

It  has  not  been  my  purpose  to  present  the  sub- 
ject exhaustively  or  minutely.  Besides  the  limi- 
tation of  time  which  would  have  prevented  this, 
the  courtesies  of  the  occasion  as  a  doctrinal  dis- 
cussion by  a  member  of  one  school  of  theology 
in  the  representative  institution  of  another  school 
forbade  the  introduction  of  matters  upon  which 
considerable  divergence  of  view  might  have  de- 
veloped. Hence  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  as- 
iii 


IV 


Preface 


certain  the  testimony  of  experience  to  a  large 
number  of  theological  theories  upon  which  it 
doubtless  has  something  to  say.  The  general 
reader  will  find  this  to  accrue  to  his  advantage.  It 
has,  no  doubt,  also  assisted  to  lift  the  discussion 
upon  higher  planes  and  to  give  it  greater  breadth. 

With  still  greater  emphasis  I  desire  to  say  that 
it  has  not  been  my  intention  either  here  or  any- 
where to  advocate  experience  as  a  substitute  for 
the  Scriptures  as  a  source  of  Christian  doctrine, 
to  lift  it  to  the  chief  place  as  the  primary  source, 
or  to  make  exclusive  claims  for  it  of  any  sort. 
Personally  I  prefer  the  experiential  method  of  in- 
troducing the  study  of  Systematic  Theology  and 
employ  it  in  my  own  instruction  as,  upon  the 
whole,  the  best;  but  I  do  not  deny  that  other 
methods  of  approach  are  legitimate,  nor  that  they 
have  certain  advantagfes  which  must  be  sur- 
rendered to.  gain  the  greater  advantages  of  the 
experiential  approach. 

What  I  have  positively  sought  to  do  is  to  pro- 
mote the  accurate  study  of  Christian  experience. 
Under  the  name  of  the  Christian  consciousness  it 
has  received  great  attention  of  recent  years,  but 
most  that  has  been  said  about  it  has  been  so  care- 
less and  vague  as  to  be  of  little  value.  It  should 
be  treated  with  accuracy,  as  it  may  be. 

Two  incidental  services  I  have  sought  to  ren- 
der. One  is  the  development  in  a  new  form  of 
the  old  Protestant  argument  for  the  Scriptures 
from  the  "  Testimony  of  the  Spirit  ".     It  is,  I  be- 


Preface  v 

lieve,  an  argument  peculiarly  suited  to  meet  the 
difficulties  of  the  present  day.  I  call  attention 
to  it  in  order  to  solicit  searching  examination  of 
its  vahdity  and  scope.  If  it  can  be  invalidated, 
this  will  be  a  service  to  Christian  thinking.  If 
it  cannot,  it  will  remain  a  bulwark  of  faith  in  the 
questionings  of  our  day.  Then  again,  I  have 
sought  to  secure  by  theoretical  discussion  and  to 
exhibit  by  practical  examples  the  true  place  of 
church  history  in  the  determination  of  the  voice 
of  experience.  The  results  of  a  critical  history 
of  doctrine  have  their  place  among  the  materials 
of  Christian  doctrine.  The  current  histories  of 
doctrine  do  not  seem  to  be  aware^  for  the  most 
part,  that  there  are  any  such  things  as  "  results  " 
of  their  work ;  and  few,  if  any,  modern  attempts 
to  construct  systems  of  doctrine  make  any  dis- 
tinct use  of  historical  materials.  Even  Principal 
Fairbairn  in  his  great  book,  admirably  furnished 
as  he  is  with  historical  knowledge,  has  been  una- 
ble in  the  constructive  part  of  his  work  to  use  the 
materials  he  has  collected  and  himself  augmented 
in  the  historical  part.  But  the  history  of  Christian 
doctrine  should  not  be  a  collection  of  mere  an- 
nals: it  should  be  a  genetic  history  tracing  the 
true  development  of  the  Christian  system;  and 
its  results  ought  not  to  be  a  collection  of  learned 
lumber,  but  materials  for  assisting  men  and  as- 
certaining the  mind  of  the  Spirit  and  the  truth  of 
God.  Thomasius  remains  almost  alone  as  an 
historian  of  the  higher  aspects  of  Christian  doc- 


vi  Preface 

trine.  He  ought  to  have  a  successor  who  could 
in  our  day  take  the  additional  material  brought 
together  by  the  labors  of  Harnack  and  his  school 
and  draw  the  lessons  of  history  in  a  form  to  be 
used  by  the  Christian  thinker.  It  has  been  my 
hope  to  do  something  to  inspire  and  guide  such 
an  undertaking. 

The  lectures,  after  delivery  at  Princeton,  were 
repeated  at  Crozer  Theological  Seminary  (Bap- 
tist), Chester,  Pa.,  and  at  the  United  College 
(Congregational),  Bradford,  England.  Lecture 
V.  was  repeated  at  Hartford  Theological  Semi- 
nary (  Congregational). 


CONTENTS 


LECTURE  I 

INTRODUCTORY        .......        I 

Theme  stated.  Object  not  historical  but  con- 
structive. Historical  sketch  of  discussions  of 
experience  since  Schleiermacher.  The  principle 
of  the  investigation  to  be  found  in  consciousness. 
Value  of  this.  The  ultimate  element  of  Chris- 
tian experience,  found  in  the  permanent  choice 
of  duty  as  such.  Analysis  of  this  ultimate  ele- 
ment, yielding  the  ideas  of  duty,  responsibility, 
and  sin.  Christian  view  of  the  world  as  a  king- 
dom of  evil.     Summaries. 

LECTURE  II 

THE   ORIGINATING    SOURCE   OF   THE    NEW    BIRTH     .  .      4I 

Source  of  the  New  Birth  not  the  mere  power  of 
choice.  Not  the  world.  Not  the  sinner  him- 
self. An  objective  power,  personal,  holy,  be- 
nevolent, infinite.  The  doctrine  of  God,  the 
first  contribution.  Characteristics  of  the  proof. 
Consequent  doctrines  of  justification,  and  pre- 
venient  grace.  Kaftan's  criticisms  as  to  the 
desirability  and  the  possibility  of  this  line  of  <lis- 
cussion. 

LECTURE  III 

SOURCES    OF    CHRISTIAN    EXPERIENCE    OUTSIDE    OF   THE 

INDIVIDUAL  CHRISTIAN  .  .  .  .87 

The  experience  of  the  original  group  of  apostles 
vii 


viii  Contents 

and  their  associates.  The  New  Testament  the 
primitive  record  of  Christianity.  Has  the  Bible 
authority?  Criticism  of  Ritschl  and  Kaftan. 
The  testimony  of  the  spirit.  Extension  and 
completion  of  this  argument.  How  far  the  ar- 
gument reaches.  History  of  Doctrine  as  a 
source  of  experience.  Methods  of  historical  de- 
velopment. Criteria  of  a  sound  development. 
Creeds.  Historical  argument  not  ultimate. 
Kaftan's  objection.  The  Holy  Spirit  and  the 
development. 

LECTURE  IV 

THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST 133 

The  motives  leading  to  conversion  come  from 
Christ.  Divine  gifts  bestowed  by  him.  Divine 
attributes  manifested.  Christ  proved  by  experi- 
ence to  be  God.  The  testimony  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. The  course  of  historical  development 
from  the  apostolic  age  to  Nice.  Critical  estimate 
of  the  development.  The  trinity.  Ritschl's 
criticism  that  these  are  matters  of  no  interest. 
Kaftan's  great  advance  upon  Ritschl. 

LECTURE  V 

THE  WORK  OF  CHRIST l8S 

The  work  of  revelation.  Biblical  authority. 
Authority  in  religion  in  general.  The  work 
of  atonement.  Christ's  work  effects  something 
for  us  which  we  could  not  effect  for  ourselves. 
What  experience  sees  in  the  sacrificial  death. 
Relation  to  guilt,  condemnation,  and  law.  The 
biblical  testimony.  "  Ransom  "  and  "propitia- 
tion". The  history  of  the  doctrine.  Criticism 
of  the  development.  Kaftan's  contribution  to 
the  discussion. 


Contents  ix 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  CHURCH 238 

The  experience  of  sanctification.  The  church 
its  sphere.  "  Where  the  Spirit  is,  there  is  the 
church."  The  primitive  church  a  fellowship  of 
believers.  Change  to  the  Roman  conception. 
This  a  "  degeneration ".  Reformation  defini- 
tions of  the  church.  The  Spirit  truly  in  the 
Reformation  churches.  This  experience  against 
the  exclusive  claims  of  Rome.  Equally  against 
every  form  of  the  doctrine  of  "  apostolical  suc- 
cession ".  Laud  and  the  Puritans.  Wesley. 
Edwards.  The  Spirit  to-day  with  the  non-pre- 
latical  churches.  The  further  problem  as  to 
experience.    The  certainty  of  Faith. 


LECTURE  I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Evangelical  doctrine  constitutes  a  true  sys- 
tem. Theologies,  of  course,  are  systematic,  for  it 
is  their  great  purpose  to  adjust  Christian  doctrines 
to  one  another,  to  explain  their  mutual  relations, 
and  to  defend  them  before  the  bar  of  all  human 
reason.  The  distinction  is  made  between  theology 
and  doctrine,  by  which  the  former  term  designates 
the  element  of  explanation  and  adjustment,  the 
latter  the  element  of  fact  which  has  thus  to  be  ex- 
plained. Doctrine  is  then  in  a  degree  independent 
of  the  particular  theology  which  a  man  may  hold, 
just  as  the  observed  facts  of  the  heavens  will  be 
the  same  whether  the  astronomer  hold  the  Ptole- 
maic or  the  Copernican  system  of  theoretical 
astronomy.  It  is  true  that  the  view  of  the  facts 
themselves  will  be  facilitated  or  hindered  by  the 
theory  of  their  relations  which  any  observer  may 
hold ;  and  hence  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  dis- 
tinction here  drawn  between  theology  and  doc- 
trine is  not  one  which  can  be  carried  through  with 
the  accuracy  with  which  we  may  speak  of  distinc- 
tion between  fact  and  theory  in  biology.  But  in  a 
degree  the  distinction  is  true,  and  useful ;  and  em- 
I 


ft  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

ploying  it  for  what  it  is  worth,  it  is  the  purpose  of 
this  course  of  lectures  to  direct  itself  rather  to  the 
doctrine  than  to  the  theology  of  Christianity,  and 
to  discuss  the  contribution  which  has  been  made  in 
the  construction  of  the  doctrinal  system  by  ex- 
perience. 

When  it  is  affirmed  that  there  is  a  system  in 
evangelical  doctrine,  it  is  meant  that  the  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  fall  easily  into  an  order  of 
mutual  dependency  and  consistency.  Given  one 
or  two  of  the  leading  features  of  this  system,  the 
rest  follow  at  once.  Break  the  system  by  denial 
at  any  principal  point,  and  you  will  have  subse- 
quent denial  at  others  or  at  all,  if  the  thinker  pro- 
ceeds in  a  logical  manner.  It  is  further  meant 
that  the  system  is  the  same  in  all  the  great  ag- 
gressive and  fruitful  churches  of  the  centuries, 
and  that,  wherever  it  has  been  held  in  varying 
degrees  by  them,  their  degree  of  loyalty  to  it,  and 
to  the  Bible  as  its  source,  has  been  the  measure  of 
their  fruitfulness.  Christendom  is  by  no  means 
one  in  its  theologies ;  and^  were  we  to  discuss  them, 
we  should  find  ourselves  carried  far  from  ex- 
perience into  regions  of  speculation  and  of  debate 
often  remote  from  the  actual  life  of  any  church. 
But  as  the  earth,  which  is  viewed  by  different 
men  in  different  ways  as  they  consider  it  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  artist,  the  scientist,  or  the 
plain  man  of  affairs  who  has  to  wrest  his  living 
from  it,  is  nevertheless  the  common  home  of  us 
all  and  carries  us  in  its  motherly  bosom  without 


Introductory  3 

much  regard  to  our  differing  affection  or  our 
schemes  of  exploitation,  so  there  is  a  broad  under- 
lying system  of  Christian  doctrine,  which  sustains 
us  all,  in  which  we  have  our  home,  and  to  w,hich 
every  biblical  Christian  is  bound  by  the  ties  of  an 
experiential  connection.  Its  influences  have  de- 
scended into  his  very  bone  and  marrow;  and  as 
apprehended  truth,  it  has  largely  proceeded  out  of 
the  solemn  processes  of  the  soul  when  this  has 
been  breathed  upon  by  the  Divine  Spirit  and  has 
felt  within  itself  the  motions  of  a  new  life.  It  is 
a  great  universal  human  fact ;  not,  it  is  true,  in  the 
sense  that  all  men  indiscriminately  know  it  or  ap- 
preciate it,  but  in  the  sense  that  in  every  age  it 
has  guided  a  multitude  of  souls  from  darkness  to 
light  and  from  the  power  of  sin  into  the  liberty  of 
the  children  of  God.  It  is  this  underlying  and 
all-sustaining  body  of  common  Christian  faith, 
found  in  all  lands,  in  all  ages,  and  among  the  di- 
verse conditions  of  universal  humanity,  and  every- 
where the  same,  that  is  the  object  of  our  present 
study. 

It  will  be  presupposed,  without  special  effort  at 
justification,  that  experience  has  contributed  to 
this  body  of  doctrine.  Historically  speaking,  ex- 
perience has  given  birth  to  various  doctrines,  as 
to  that  which  is  the  foundation  of  our  Protestant 
system.  When  Luther  taught  that  the  believing 
sinner  is  freely  forgiven  simply  for  Christ's  sake, 
it  was  because  such  had  been  his  own  experience, 
the  fulness  of  the  evangelical  method  of  salvation 


4  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

receiving  emphasis  from  the  poverty  and  ineffec- 
tiveness of  methods  of  meriting  salvation  ex- 
haustively tested  by  him  through  long  months. 
Yet  the  purpose  of  our  present  study  is  not  pri- 
marily historical.  We  shall  be  concerned  mainly 
with  the  logical  contribution  of  experience  to  the 
system,  with  what  it  can  contribute  rather  than 
with  what  it  has  contributed,  with  endeavoring  to 
ascertain,  first,  what  Christian  experience  really 
is,  and  then  what  naturally  flows  from  it  in  the 
way  of  fundamental  views  as  to  God,  man,  and 
salvation.  Experience  has  to  do  with  facts,  but  it 
is  also  a  fact  in  itself.  Men  have  always  argued 
from  it  to  certain  conclusions.  Our  question  now 
is,  how  justly  have  they  argued,  and  what,  in  all  its 
circumference,  does  experience  really  teach.  Re- 
stricted as  the  discussion  will  be  by  the  brief  hours 
of  these  few  lectures,  it  may  be  that  some  sub- 
stantial answer  can  be  made  to  that  question. 

The  time  seems  peculiarly  ripe  for  such  a 
study.  The  old  century  now  just  closing,  has 
been  characterized  by  a  series  of  strenuous  efforts 
to  deepen  theology  and  bring  to  it  the  proof 
drawn  from  the  newly  opened  fountain  of  the 
specifically  Christian  life.  These  efforts  were  be- 
gun by  .Schleiermacher  who  stands  at  the  divid- 
ing point  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centu- 
ries, and  who  became  the  agency  by  which  a  pas- 
sage was  effected  from  the  dry  and  shallow  unbe- 
lief of  the  former  into  the  enlarging  and  deepen- 
ing earnestness  of  the  latter.     He  found  Chris- 


Introductory  5 

tianity  confounded  with  the  things  of  the  world, 
a  prey  to  small  philosophies  and  flippant  criti- 
cisms, an  object  of  rejection  and  of  contempt  to 
men  who  supposed  themselves  to  have  risen  by 
means  of  their  high  education  far  above  it,  but 
who  had  never  in  fact  drunk  of  the  waters  of  gen- 
uine culture,  and  were  ignorant  of  the  real  mean- 
ing of  what  they  despised.  He  sought,  there- 
fore, to  set  forth  Christianity  in  its  distinctive  es- 
sence and  character ;  and  he  made  this  to  consist 
in  an  experience,  in  a  consciousness,  the  imme- 
diate consciousness  of  God,  designated  by  him  the 
"  feeling  of  dependence."  This  feeling,  when  the 
soul  lay  passively  open  to  all  the  in-streaming  in- 
fluences of  the  universe,  became  "  absolute,"  that 
is,  unmodified  by  any  feeling  of  corresponding 
power  and  mastery  on  the  soul's  part;  and  thus 
the  soul  felt  God.  This,  said  Schleiermacher, 
was  the  central  and  vital  point  of  the  Christian 
life,  and  in  view  of  it  every  doctrine  of  the  Chris- 
tian system  had  to  be  formulated.  His  "  System 
of  Faith  "  was  therefore  principally  an  attempt  to 
restate  the  traditional  doctrines  of  orthodoxy  un- 
der the  guidance  of  this  principle. 

The  defects  of  Schleiermacher  as  a  theologian 
are  too  well  understood  to  require  any  prolonged 
review  at  this  time.  He  did  not  succeed  fully  in 
emancipating  himself  from  the  pantheism  which 
almost  necessarily  follows  from  his  form  of  con- 
ceiving of  the  ultimate  Christian  consciousness. 
His  Christology  provides  neither  for  the  pre-ex- 


6  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

istence  nor  the  sinless  perfection  of  Christ.  His 
view  of  the  Scriptures  reduces  them  to  the  posi- 
tion of  a  secondary  testimony  to  the  truth,  the 
primary  being  always  afforded  by  consciousness. 
With  such  great  determinative  defects  his  discus- 
sions of  the  subordinate  themes  could  not  prove 
successful.  But  his  positive  affirmations  fur- 
nished the  problem  and  determined  the  course  of 
subsequent  theology  to  a  very  large  degree.  He 
maintained  religion's  independence  of  both  mor- 
als and  philosophy,  and  thus  claimed  for  theology 
a  sphere  of  its  own  in  which  it  was  to  be  unham- 
pered by  the  antagonisms  of  any  other  form  of 
culture  whatever, — in  our  own  day,  that  is,  of 
scientific  and  even  historical  criticism.  Christian 
truth  authenticates  itself  on  Schleiermacher's  ba- 
sis, because  it  is  at  bottom  a  matter  of  immediate 
consciousness.  He  spiritualized  also  the  concep- 
tion of  faith  by  making  it  essentially  the  imme- 
diate communion  of  the  soul  with  God.  He  dis- 
tinguished between  faith  and  the  faith,  between 
the  saving  attitude  of  the  soul  and  the  forms  of 
intellectual  conception  of  the  truth  embodied  in 
the  dogmas  and  creeds  of  the  church.  And  yet, 
while  thus  emphasizing  the  spiritual  and  ethical, 
he  did  not  forget  the  historical  elements  of  Chris- 
tianity, for  he  laid  a  new  emphasis  upon  the  his- 
torical Christ,  and  by  his  practical  attitude  toward 
the  New  Testament  and  his  more  sensible  meth- 
ods of  exegesis  did  much  to  overcome  objections 
to  the  gospels  which  had  accumulated  during  the 


Introductory  7 

rationalistic  epoch.  In  a  word,  he  changed  the 
entire  aspect  of  the  dispute  between  belief  and 
unbelief,  and  introduced  a  new  era  of  faith  by  ex- 
hibiting to  men  the  certainty  of  spiritual  verities 
now  illuminated  before  their  spiritual  vision  and 
made  vivid  to  their  reawakened  susceptibilities. 
Schleiermacher  was  followed  by  a  series  of 
men  who  in  various  ways  took  up  the  problem  he 
set  and  sought  to  bring  it  to  a  more  satisfactory 
solution.  One  of  these  was  Thomasius,  the  his- 
torian and  dogmatician  of  Erlangen.  His  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  was  a  deep  and  ardent 
devotion  to  his  divine  Master,  so  that,  as  has  been 
often  remarked  by  different  pupils  and  readers, 
intercourse  with  him  made  "  the  heart  burn " 
within  one,  much  as  did  the  hearts  of  the  disci- 
ples on  the  way  to  Emmaus.  He  was  more  in- 
fluenced in  the  department  of  formal  reasoning 
by  Hegel  than  by  Schleiermacher.  His  "  History 
of  Dogmas  "  bristles  with  Hegelian  terminology 
and  perhaps  distorts  the  true  course  of  events 
somewhat  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  Hegelian 
method.  But  from  Schleiermacher  he  derived 
the  great  principle  that  theology  flows  out  of  life, 
that  Christian  faith  comes  first,  introducing  the 
man  into  a  new  realm  of  experience,  and  that 
then,  and  only  then,  is  he  led  by  the  demands  of 
the  mind  for  an  intellectual  understanding  of 
these  experiences  as  well  as  by  the  necessity  of 
defending  his  faith  before  opposition  and  of  ex- 
plaining it  to  the  inquirer,  to  the  successive  for- 


8  Christian  Lifeand  Theology 

mulation  of  one  principle  of  doctrine  after  an- 
other. Christian  history  passes  through  a  gen- 
uinely logical  development,  according  to  Thoma- 
sius — this  was  the  Hegelian  element, — ^but  this 
development  is  the  constantly  advancing  appro- 
priation of  the  truth  by  the  church  under  the 
teaching  of  the  indwelling  Spirit — this  is  the 
Schleiermacherian  element,  made  more  correct 
and  evangelical  than  Schleiermacher  had  made  it 
by  the  greater  definiteness  of  Thomasius'  concep- 
tion of  the  fundamental  Christian  consciousness. 
Thomasius  was  followed  at  Erlangen  by  Frank 
who  may  be  called  pre-eminently  the  experien- 
tial theologian  of  the  century.  He  followed 
Schleiermacher  in  maintaining  a  distinct  sphere 
for  religion,  and  in  reducing  it  to  one  funda- 
mental element,  a  matter  also  of  ultimate  con- 
sciousness and  hence  of  immediate  certainty,  not 
a  mere  feeling  or  a  passive  consciousness,  but  an 
act,  the  determinative  act  of  Christian  committal 
of  one's  self  to  the  Redeemer,  the  act  of  faith. 
Upon  this  he  built  up  a  "  System  of  Christian 
Certainty,"  which  embraced  in  successive  degrees 
of  diminishing  immediacy  the  "  immanent  "  facts 
of  sin  and  forgiveness,  the  "  transcendent "  ob- 
jects of  faith,  God  and  Christ,  and  the  "  tran- 
seunt "  objects,  the  church  and  the  world.  In 
this  system  the  main  doctrines  of  Christian  the- 
ology are  established  by  a  process  of  logical  de- 
velopment from  the  facts  involved  in  the  New 
Birth;  whereupon  Frank  proceeds  to  construct 


Introductory  9 

his  "  System  of  Christian  Truth,"  in  which  the 
main  positions  are  assumed  to  have  been  already- 
proved  in  the  "  Certainty,"  and  the  effort  is  made 
to  bring  them  into  their  proper  relations  and  to 
set  them  forth  with  the  requisite  fulness.  Of 
this  system  in  its  two  parts  it  is  not  necessary  to 
speak  now  at  length,  since  the  discussions  of  the 
subsequent  lectures  begin  at  the  same  point  and 
agree  with  Frank's  main  results.  In  a  word  the 
two  "  Systems  "  may  be  summarized  as  a  resolute 
and  elaborate  attempt  to  found  Christian  theol- 
ogy upon  experience  as  its  sole  and  sufficient 
basis. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  line  of 
developing  orthodoxy  following  the  great  princi- 
ples suggested  by  Schleiermacher  has  been  per- 
mitted to  hold  undisputed  possession  of  the  field. 
The  most  virile  and  influential  theological  move- 
ment in  Germany,  itself  also  building  on  Schleier- 
macher and  on  Kant,  has  contested  the  methods 
and  the  results  of  the  orthodox  experiential 
school.  I  refer  to  the  school  of  Ritschl.  Ritschl 
was  himself  a  theologian  of  the  Christian  expe- 
rience, only,  in  distinction  from  Frank  and  also 
from  Schleiermacher,  he  took  his  stand  on  the 
collective  experience  of  the  Christian  community, 
apart  from  which,  in  his  deep  aversion  from  me- 
diaeval pietism,  he  was  prepared  to  admit  no  gen- 
uine experience.  This  collective  experience  he 
saw  embodied  in  the  New  Testament,  and  was 
accordingly  primarily  an  exegetical  theologian, 


lo  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

though  his  exegesis  was  often  arbitrary  and 
marred  by  the  controlling  influence  of  certain 
ideas.  Still  he  remained  an  experiential  theolo- 
gian. His  eye  was  ever  directed  to  the  Christian 
life,  and  he  judged  the  value  of  every  dogmatic 
proposition  by  its  "  interest "  to  the  Christian, 
that  is,  by  its  tendency  to  promote  that  life.  His 
defects,  which  were  many,  and  which  will  neces- 
sarily find  frequent  discussion  in  the  following 
hours,  arose  from  two  principal  reasons,  from 
his  failure  to  understand  the  fundamental  fact  of 
experience,  the  New  Birth,  and  from  the  over- 
whelmingly apologetic  tendency  of  his  theological 
labors.  He  failed  to  understand  the  person  and 
sacrifice  of  Christ  because  he  failed  to  compre- 
hend the  work  of  regeneration  in  each  individual 
soul.  And  he  felt  the  objections  against  mira- 
cles, the  trinity,  the  incarnation,  and  other  doc- 
trines so  keenly  that  he  was  constantly  tempted  to 
meet  these  by  declaring  the  doctrines  irrelevant, 
pertaining  to  matters  of  no  "  interest,"  and  hence 
outside  the  true  sphere  of  the  theologian.  He  thus 
failed  to  give  attention  to  many  of  the  great  con- 
ditions lying  underneath  facts  of  the  Christian 
life,  without  which  these  facts  cannot  be.  But  he 
uttered  with  what  power  these  detractions  left 
him  his  plea  for  the  independent  sphere  of  theol- 
ogy and  for  the  reality  and  incomparable  signifi- 
cance among  human  phenomena  of  the  Christian 
life. 

Ritschl  has  now  given  place  to  Kaftan,  Profes- 


Introductory  1 1 

sor  of  Theology  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  who 
possesses  an  equal  importance  in  the  theological 
world,  and  is  the  leading  present  representative 
of  the  general  theological  position  originated  by 
Ritschl.  He  also  is  a  theologian  of  experience. 
In  his  early  professional  life  he  occupied  much 
the  same  position  as  Frank,  but  has  now  aban- 
doned it.  Like  Ritschl  he  lays  great  emphasis 
upon  revelation  as  the  source  of  Christian  theol- 
ogy. Yet  he  speaks  perpetually  of  the  Christian 
faith  (Glaube)  and  of  what  is  held  by  it,  and  he 
even  conducts  his  discussion  of  theology  in  the 
"  Dogmatik  "  so  as  largely  to  avoid  formal  proof, 
adducing  as  evidence  that  such  and  such  a  posi- 
tion is  the  Christian  position  only  the  somewhat 
vague  suggestion  that  it  is  the  deliverance  of 
this  "  faith."  Faith  comes  from  revelation, 
which  is  the  personal  contact  of  the  divine  Spirit 
with  the  human  and  from  which  the  obedient  soul, 
thus  coming  to  know  God  personally,  gains  a 
knowledge  of  truth.  In  other  words,  the  Chris- 
tian life  is  a  definite  thing,  leading  naturally  in 
the  case  of  every  true  believer  to  distinct  general 
views  of  truth,  based  upon  a  definite  understand- 
ing of  the  Bible,  which  views  it  is  the  task  of  the- 
ology to  set  forth  in  their  purity  and  general  con- 
sistency, untrammeled  by  the  artificial  shackles 
of  a  worldly  and  false  philosophy. 

The  movement  begun  by  Schleiermacher  and 
continued  by  many  other  theologians  besides  the 
ones  whose  names  have  been  so  briefly  men- 


12  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

tioned  here,  has  thus  endured  to  the  present  time. 
A  quantity  of  rich  material  has  been  gathered 
which  ought  to  be  available  for  theology.  A 
number  of  misleading  by-ways  have  been  desig- 
nated and  pitfalls  have  been  marked.  It  may  be 
that  something  better  can  now  be  done  than  has 
yet  been  done  to  define  precisely  and  to  use  intel- 
ligently for  theological  purposes  the  rich  treas- 
ure of  the  accumulated  Christian  experience  of 
nineteen  centuries.  Indeed,  the  last  named  rep- 
resentative of  the  experiential  theology.  Kaftan, 
seems  to  be  of  this  opinion,  for  he  introduces  his 
own  work  by  a  criticism  of  his  predecessors,  de- 
voting at  one  point  brief  but  trenchant  criticism 
to  Frank.  Frank,  he  says,  teaches  that  the  Chris- 
tian gains  a  certainty  as  to  his  faith  quite  parallel 
to  that  which  he  has  as  to  the  facts  of  the  natural 
consciousness,  and  that  dogma  then  enters  the 
arena  of  discussion  as  the  production  of  the 
Christian  church  by  normal  and  necessary  Chris- 
tian processes  from  the  facts  of  its  faith.  Now, 
says  Kaftan,  this  method  cannot  withstand  criti- 
cism, for  it  cannot  compel  assent,  since  the  facts 
of  experience  upon  which  it  bases  its  argument 
are  not  accessible  to  every  one ;  and  then,  it  has  no 
"  principle,"  as  he  styles  it,  or  fundamental  and 
germinal  idea  out  of  which  everything  flows. 
This  criticism  we  may  dismiss  at  once  by  saying 
that  "  compulsion  "  belongs  to  mathematics  and 
not  to  theology,  even  Kaftan  failing  to  "com- 
pel "  many,  for  he  does  not  seem  to  lack  critics. 


Introductory  13 

As  to  the  "  principle,"  Frank  thought  he  had  one 
in  the  New  Birth,  and  it  may  be  possible  to  show 
that  he  was  right.  But  Kaftan  pushes  his  criti- 
cism further  still.  His  most  serious  objection  to 
Frank's  method,  probably  furnishing  the  deci- 
sive reason  why  he  himself  abandoned  it,  is  that 
dogma  does  not  in  fact  arise  in  the  way  supposed. 
Frank  does  not  truly  work  from  a  sound  basis  by 
legitimate  processes  to  a  sound  result,  and  that 
result  the  dogma  of  the  church;  but  he  presup- 
poses the  dogma,  and  could  never  guide  the 
course  of  his  argument  as  he  does,  were  not  this 
goal  consciously  in  his  eye  from  the  first.  Kaf- 
tan stigmatizes  this  attitude  as  "  Catholic,"  or  as 
we  put  it  in  English,  Romanizing,  since  it  erects 
the  formulated  dogma  into  a  mysterious  "  object 
of  piety."  Dogma  is  not  "  the  common  expres- 
sion by  the  church,  through  formal  act,  of  the 
contents  of  its  faith,"  as  Thomasius  had  phrased 
it,  but  is  derived  in  Kaftan's  view  from  philoso- 
phy. The  "  supernatural  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost"  in  the  formulation  of  dogma  is  an  illusion. 
They  who  defend  this  view  can  neither  explain 
the  gap  yawning  between  the  New  Testament 
and  the  earliest  beginnings  of  dogma-making, 
nor  tell  why  they  reject  the  further  labors  of  the 
eighteenth  century  rationalists,  who  proceeded  by 
the  same  laws  and  in  the  same  direction  as  their 
orthodox  predecessors.  It  remains,  says  Kaftan, 
that  the  church  dogmas  as  such  are  artificial  prod- 
ucts, containing   intermingled   truth   and   error, 


14  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

and  are  themselves  objects  of  legitimate  criti- 
cism.^ 

We  are  not  specially  concerned  with  defending 
Frank  against  this  criticism,  but  we  need  to  learn 
the  lesson  taught  us  by  Kaftan  for  the  advan- 
tage of  our  own  investigation.  We  may,  without 
elaborate  discussion,  at  once  and  freely  admit 
that,  if  Christian  experience  is  to  be  worth  any- 
thing for  theological  purposes,  it  must  have  a 
"principle,"  and  that  it  must  develop  the  conse- 
quences of  that  principle  according  to  the  laws 
prescribed  by  the  subject  itself,  and  not  in  the  in- 
terest of  any  foregone  conclusions.  Philosophy 
undoubtedly  plays  its  part  in  the  construction  of 
doctrinal  definitions,  and  this  is  as  evident  in 
Ritschl  and  Kaftan  as  in  Athanasius  and  Augus- 
tine. But  to  maintain  the  real  contents  of  the 
Christian  faith  uncontaminated  by  the  philoso- 
phy,— that  is  the  supreme  problem  of  the  theo- 
logian in  very  truth. 

Our  task  has  been  essentially  lightened  by  one 
author  in  our  own  country,  the  late  Professor  L. 
F.  Stearns,  of  Bangor  Theological  Seminary.  In 
his  "  Evidence  of  Christian  Experience  "  he  has 
had  chief  reference  to  apologetics,  but  he  has  an- 
alyzed fundamental  Christian  experience  with 
great  care,  has  often  traced  its  influence  in  deter- 
mining Christian  doctrine,  and  has  added  in  the 
course  of  this  labor  a  number  of  very  valuable 

*  See  "  Die  Wahrheit  der  Christlichen  Religion,"  erster 
lAbschnitt,  fiinftes  Kapitel. 


Introductory  15 

contributions  to  the  specific  theme  before  us. 
Conscious  and  no  doubt  unconscious  indebted- 
ness to  this  greatly  lamented  teacher  will  be  found 
on  many  pages  of  these  lectures.  May  they  carry 
forward  in  some  degree  his  labors,  as  he  was  in 
his  last  days  girding  himself  to  do!^ 

With  this  brief  review  of  the  history  of  the  ex- 
periential theology,  we  may  advance  at  once  to 
the  more  positive  discussion  of  our  theme.  Ac- 
ceding to  Kaftan's  demand  that  all  theology,  in- 
cluding a  theology  of  experience,  should  begin 

'In  a  private  letter  to  the  lecturer  under  the  date  of 
April  29th,  1891,  Prof.  Stearns  wrote : — 

"  For  the  purpose  of  apologetics  it  is  sufficient  that 
we  should  have  a  true  and  first  hand  knowledge  of  the 
Christian  facts;  it  is  not  needful  that  we  should  have 
an  infallible  knowledge  of  them.  We  are  concerned  in 
knowing  that  they  are  rather  than  what  they  are.  But 
in  systematic  theology  we  aim  at  a  more  exact  knowl- 
edge. The  Christian  experience  of  the  individual  is  im- 
perfect, and  so  far  as  it  is  mingled  with  sin,  it  has 
elements  of  error  in  it.  The  Christian  experience  of  the 
church,  taking  it  in  its  whole  history  and  in  its  best 
forms,  may  contain  less  error;  but  still,  we  Protestants 
would  not  claim  any  infallibility  for  it.  So  we  are 
thrown  back  upon  the  infallible  revelation,  as  it  is  re- 
corded in  the  inspired  Scriptures,  for  the  correction  of 
Christian  experience,  whether  individual  or  general.  It 
is  true  that  only  the  regenerate  man  can  so  interpret  the 
Bible  as  to  discern  its  truth,  but  his  experience  will  al- 
ways lag  behind  the  Bible,  as  that  of  the  church  has 
always  done.  Then,  experience  has  not  an  equal  value 
for  all  parts  of  the  system.  Its  value  in  eschatology  is 
slight  as  compared  with  its  value  in  christology." 


1 6  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

with  a  "  principle/'  we  begin  our  study  with  the 
search  for  some  ultimate  element  of  Christian 
experience  from  which  all  the  rest  is  derivable  by 
the  processes  of  legitimate  analysis.  Since  we 
are  studying  experience,  the  most  central  and  im- 
portant of  which  must  evidently  be  the  experi- 
ence of  consciousness,  we  begin  by  asking  wheth- 
er there  is  any  fact  of  consciousness  which  lends 
itself  to  our  purpose;  and  we  are  thus  silently 
presupposing  certain  things  about  consciousness 
itself  to  which  we  need  first  to  pay  a  more  ex- 
plicit attention. 

First  of  these,  consciousness  is  a  reliable  source 
of  knowledge.  By  consciousness  I  mean  here 
simply  the  knowledge  which  the  mind  has  of  its 
own  activities.  There  is  such  a  knowledge.  To 
think,  and  to  know  that  I  think,  are  one  and  the 
same  indivisible  act  of  the  soul.  And  hence, 
when  I  say,  "  I  am  now  thinking,"  I  say  what  I 
must  be  able  to  say  if  I  am  thinking,  and  what  I 
know  with  all  the  certainty  of  which  I  am  capa- 
ble. It  has  often  been  remarked  that  conscious- 
ness is  an  uncertain  source  of  self-knowledge  be- 
cause our  memory  of  what  has  occurred  within 
us,  even  but  a  moment  since,  is  often  astray  from 
the  fact;  and  because  many  things  take  place 
amid  such  a  whirl  of  perceptions  and  emotions 
that  our  powers  of  self-observation  are  too  se- 
verely taxed.  All  this  is  true.  And  it  is  further 
true  that  self -observation  is  exposed  to  most  of 
the  infirmities  that  attend  any  observation,  aris- 


Introductory  17 

ing  from  inexperience,  haste,  seizure  upon  some 
misleading  detail,  lack  of  time  and  permanence 
in  the  phenomena,  etc.,  etc.  Yet,  as  other  obser- 
vation is  on  the  whole,  and  under  the  proper  pre- 
cautions, the  source  of  reliable  knowledge, — yes, 
the  source  of  the  most  of  our  reliable  knowledge, 
so  is  self-observation.  As  Prof.  James  well  re- 
marks :  "  The  only  safeguard  is  the  final  con- 
sensus of  our  farther  knowledge  about  the  thing 
in  question,  later  views  correcting  earlier  ones, 
until  at  last  the  harmony  of  a  consistent  system 
is  reached.  Such  a  system,  gradually  worked 
out,  is  the  best  guarantee  the  psychologist  can 
give  for  the  soundness  of  any  particular  psycho- 
logic observation  he  may  report."  And,  we  may 
further  say,  it  is  the  best  guarantee  that  humanity 
can  have. 

Another  presupposition  involved  in  our  search 
for  our  principle  in  consciousness  is  that  made  by 
psychology  and  many  another  science,  that  any 
man  by  knowing  himself  knows  men  in  general. 
If  we  ask  for  an  ultimate  element  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  found  in  consciousness,  every  one  of  us 
must  consult  his  own  consciousness.  But,  some 
objector  will  interpose,  however  much  certainty 
consciousness  may  give  any  one  as  to  himself,  it 
gives  him  none  as  to  Christianity  in  general.  We 
reply  that  men  are  alike.  What  is  true  of  one, 
individual  idiosyncracies  aside,  will  be  true  of  all 
others.  So  we  assume  in  psychology,  and  find 
our  assumption  confirmed  by  every  subsequent 


1 8  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

test  we  are  able  to  apply ;  and  so  we  may  assume 
in  Christianity,  for  the  Christian  is  still  a  man, 
and  what  is  true  of  him  would  be  true  of  any 
other  man  if  he  were  in  exactly  the  same  circum- 
stances. 

Another  presupposition, — the  consciousness  of 
the  Christian  will  differ  from  that  of  other  men 
only  in  its  objects,  not  in  its  nature.  The  Chris- 
tian possesses  no  faculties  that  do  not  belong  to 
every  other  man.  He  may  have  to  do  with  facts 
which  other  men  pass  by,  and  may  assume  a  pe- 
culiar attitude  towards  them.  The  chemist  con- 
siders facts  that  the  common  man  knows  nothing 
about,  and  becomes  more  or  less  unintelligible  to 
his  fellows  in  language,  range  of  thought,  intel- 
lectual interests,  and  view  of  practical  matters. 
But  every  one  knows  that,  if  he  would  attend  to 
the  same  facts,  he  would  be  led  through  the  same 
paths  of  thought  and  become  like  the  chemist, 
understanding  his  language  and  thinking  much 
as  he  does.  And  so  with  the  Christian.  Differ- 
ent as  his  tone  of  thought  may  seem  to  be  from 
that  of  others,  the  difference  is  not  essential. 
Given  the  same  facts  of  experience  and  the  same 
consciousness,  and  the  same  theology  would  re- 
sult. If  the  utterances  of  Christian  experience, 
based  upon  certain  asserted  spiritual  facts,  stand 
the  tests  to  which  other  utterances  of  conscious- 
ness are  subjected,  then  the  non-Christian  must 
admit  that  a  Christian  experience  is  a  possible 
thing.     The  only  question  can  be  whether  it  is 


Introductory  19 

actual.  As  to  this  the  testimony  of  Christians  is 
worth  more  than  all  the  conjectures  of  a  world. 

Our  search  for  a  "  principle,"  for  the  ultimate 
fact  of  Christian  experience,  may  therefore  now 
begin.  We  are  to  ask  the  question.  What  makes 
a  man  a  Christian,  so  that,  having  this  he  is  a 
Christian,  whatever  else  he  may  lack,  and  lacking 
this,  he  is  not  a  Christian,  whatever  else  he  may 
have.  In  all  the  ramifications  of  qualities  and 
courses  of  conduct  which  we  find  in  him,  how 
are  we  to  discern  the  trunk  from  which  they 
spread,  and  follow  this  to  the  central  tap-root 
which  nourishes  and  supports  the  whole  ? 

Few  Christians  would  hesitate  over  the  answer 
to  this  question.  The  common  nomenclature  of 
our  Christian  experience,  founded  upon  biblical 
expressions  and  incorporated  in  the  current 
language  of  the  church,  traces  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  life  both  historically  and  logically 
to  the  act  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  We  do  not 
all  pass  through  the  same  experience,  and  not 
every  one  can  point  to  the  precise  hour  when  he 
put  forth  this  act,  and  thus  consciously  "  passed 
from  death  unto  life."  It  may  be  buried  in  the 
oblivion  which  surrounds  the  earliest  childhood. 
The  process  of  change  in  other  cases  may  have 
been  so  prolonged  and  the  approach  to  the  end  so 
gradual  that  no  one  moment  can  be  assigned 
when  we  first  definitely  recognized  ourselves  as 
believers.  But  malre  the  passage  we  did,  wheth- 
er with  the  feeble  step  and  the  scanty  knowledge 


ao  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

of  infancy,  or  in  the  hesitation  of  a  slowly  ripen- 
ing youth  coming  by  almost  unconscious  degrees 
to  the  knowledge  of  himself,  or  by  the  prompt  de- 
cision of  the  mature  man,  confessing  sin,  seeking 
pardon,  and  then  ranging  himself  by  deliberate 
and  irreversible  act  upon  the  side  of  his  Redeem- 
er ;  and  when  it  was  made,  then  we  became  Chris- 
tians. 

But  if  it  is  thus  easy  to  isolate  the  ultimate  fact 
of  Christian  experience,  it  is  less  easy  to  interpret 
it.  Faith  is  a  mystery  to  most  Christians  and  a 
greater  mystery  to  other  men.  It  has  so  many 
phases  that  to  express  it  in  any  one  simple  form 
may  seem  to  be  to  ignore  or  deny  some  other  as- 
pect equally  important.  It  gathers  about  the  per- 
son of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thus  ordinarily 
presupposes  a  considerable  body  of  knowledge 
about  his  nature  and  work.  It  often  involves 
many  doctrines  as  to  human  duty  and  destiny 
which  are  largely  taken  upon  trust.  It  arises 
from  certain  sentiments  of  admiration,  gratitude, 
loyalty,  fear,  and  love,  and  gives  birth  to  others. 
It  is  simple,  confiding  trust,  repose  of  the  soul, 
submission  to  the  care  of  a  perfect  Redeemer, 
the  attitude  of  passive  receptivity ;  or  it  is  enlist- 
ment in  a  service,  as  when  a  warrior  girds  on  his 
arms  and  takes  his  place  with  firm  purpose  amid 
the  dangers  and  terrors  of  battle.  It  is  like  a  seed 
thrown  into  the  earth,  capable  of  growth,  produc- 
ing deeper  thoughts,  a  more  enlarged  horizon  of 
life  and  duty,  warmer  feelings,  more  profound 


Introductory  21 

resolutions,  longer  and  more  consistent  trains  of 
action,  than  seemed  at  all  possible  from  a  view 
of  its  outward  form  or  magnitude.  But  as  faith 
is  the  ultimate  thing  in  the  Christian  life,  so  it  is 
itself  ultimately  one  thing,  which  given,  all  the 
rest  will  develop,  which  wanting,  nothing  else  can 
flourish.  It  is  the  permanent  choice  of  duty  as 
such.  Jesus  calls  to  duty  embracing  both  God 
and  man;  and  conscience  affirms  obligation  and 
ultimately  defines  it  in  the  same  way.  Man  in 
response  must  take  the  right  attitude  towards  ob- 
ligatory duty.  When  he  does,  the  mental  gaze, 
fixed  steadily  by  conscious  effort  upon  it,  acquires 
new  knowledge  of  its  abstract  relations  and  con- 
crete contents.  Thus  the  intellect  is  enriched. 
But  more,  the  affections  are  enriched,  for  they 
cannot  fail  to  be  stirred  by  the  contemplation  of 
the  chosen  object,  so  that  duty  becomes  the  cen- 
ter about  which  gather  deep  feelings  of  devotion. 
Duty  cannot  omit  the  relations  which  we  sustain 
to  the  chief  teacher  in  holy  things  whom  we  pos- 
sess, and  thus  the  attitude  of  trust  in  the  Re- 
deemer must  develop  from  it.  Loving  contem- 
plation of  him  will  necessarily  follow,  and  all  that 
concrete  piety  which  has  from  the  beginning 
gathered  about  his  person  will  in  due  time  arise, 
except  some  malign  influence  interfere  to  thwart 
the  orderly  progress  of  Christian  growth. 

The  ultimate  fact  in  the  Christian  life  is,  then, 
the  New  Birth,  which  upon  its  merely  human  side 
is  the  permanent  choice  of  duty.    As  such  it  is 


a  2  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

a  matter  of  immediate  consciousness,  and  so  of 
absolute  certainty.  As  a  conscious  act,  its  pre- 
suppositions lie  in  consciousness,  its  subject  is  the 
conscious  self,  and  its  immediate  consequences 
are  also  matters  of  consciousness.  In  a  wide 
range  of  fact  it  is  therefore  at  once  seen  to  be  an 
affair  as  to  which  the  most  unquestionable  cer- 
tainty of  which  man  is  capable  may  be  enter- 
tained, the  certainty,  namely,  of  this  immediate 
consciousness. 

Analysis  yielding  us  this  result,  we  are  fur- 
nished with  a  speedy  justification  of  these  presup- 
positions which  we  made  and  noticed  at  length  a 
few  moments  since.  The  ultimate  element  of 
this  consciousness  being  a  choice,  it  is,  of  course, 
first  known;  second  the  same  for  every  man; 
third  like  every  other  choice  except  in  the  thing 
chosen ;  and  hence,  fourth,  an  altogether  possible 
experience,  and  deniable  by  any  critic  only  in  the 
sense  that  he  does  not  believe  it  to  occur.  Let 
any  man  have  the  idea  of  duty,  as  every  man  has, 
and  he  is  able  to  choose  it  as  the  law  of  his  life. 
If  he  chooses  it,  he  knows  that  he  so  chooses  with 
an  inexpugnable  certainty;  and  he  knows  every 
result  which  follows  from  it  in  the  sphere  of  con- 
sciousness. If,  then,  this  choice  be  found,  by  a 
genuinely  logical  analysis,  led  by  no  "  dogma  de- 
rived from  an  alien  source  "  and  guided  to  no 
previously  determined  goal,  to  be  productive  of  a 
system  of  principles  worthy  to  be  called  an  evan- 
gelical  body   of   doctrine,   then   we   shall   have 


Introductory  23 

gained  that  "principle"  which  Kaftan  rightly 
demands  a  Christian  system  should  have. 

We  turn  therefore  now  to  the  attempt  by  care- 
ful analysis  to  bring  out  the  things  involved  in 
this  ultimate  fact  of  Christian  experience,  the 
New  Birth. 

The  first  element  we  have  already  unwittingly 
introduced  by  the  remark  that  "  every  man  has 
the  idea  of  duty."  Choice  of  duty  certainly  pre- 
supposes the  idea  of  duty,  for  nothing  can  be 
chosen  which  is  not  before  the  mind  as  an  object 
of  choice.  The  Christian  finds,  therefore,  that 
he  had  a  conception  of  duty  long  before  he  yield- 
ed to  it ;  and  further  reflection  upon  his  part  con- 
vinces him  that  he  was  never  without  it.  He  did 
not  always  have  that  full  and  imperative  sense 
which  he  now  has.  Duty  seemed  restricted  to 
certain  specified  objects  and  relations,  and 
strangely  absent  from  others.  Its  outline  was 
uncertain  before  the  mental  vision,  and  that  vi- 
sion sometimes  strangely  perverted,  so  that  the 
"  worse  appeared  the  better  reason."  But  some 
idea  of  duty  and  some  responsiveness  to  its  ap- 
peals he  always  had. 

In  this  idea,  now,  there  were  involved  four 
things  at  least,  all  of  them  of  importance  for  our 
present  theme.  First,  the  supremacy  of  the  fac- 
ulty which  deals  with  duty,  the  conscience,  among 
the  faculties  of  the  soul.  As  there  is  only  one 
voice  in  man  which  prescribes  action,  saying, 
Thou  shalt,  while  all  the  others  record  facts,  tes- 


24  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

tifying  in  various  ways  as  to  what  is,  so  in  man 
and  in  the  world  with  which  man  has  to  do,  the 
moral  element  is  supreme,  moral  interests  above 
every  other,  the  ideal  world  only  that  in  which 
right  and  duty  triumph,  or  rather  reign  in  un- 
questioned pre-eminence.  I  do  not  know  that 
anybody  disputes  this  at  the  present  time,  and 
therefore  we  may  spare  ourselves  the  labor  of 
further  discussion  of  the  thought.  We  need  only 
to  ask,  Is  the  thought  logically  and  correctly  de- 
veloped from  the  ultimate  Christian  experience; 
and  here,  for  one,  I  see  no  defect  in  the  analysis 
and  expect  no  unfavorable  criticism  from  others. 

The  second  thing  involved  in  the  idea  of  duty 
is  the  conception  of  responsibility.  Something 
is  to  be  done;  and,  if  it  is  not  done,  something 
more  is  to  be  said  than  that  one  has  fallen  short 
of  this  or  that  standard.  The  delinquent  is  re- 
sponsible for  this  shortcoming,  he,  and  not  some 
one  else.  He  holds  himself  to  this  standard  as 
something  of  the  greatest  importance  for  him, 
from  which  in  fact  he  cannot  conceive  himself  to 
be  free  either  now  or  at  any  other  time,  even  if 
eternity  itself  be  brought  into  the  consideration, 
whatever  minor  changes  of  detail  in  the  concep- 
tion of  duty  may  occur  in  the  infinite  hereafter. 

This  element  of  our  analysis,  again,  we  may 
set  down  as  fulfilling  Kaftan's  entirely  proper  de- 
mand that  it  shall  be  logically  correct,  according 
to  the  "  inner  logic  "  of  the  subject.  Remarka- 
ble as  it  will  appear,  it  is  true  that  every  school  of 


Introductory  25 

ethics  holds  to  responsibility  and  tries  in  some 
way  to  give  it  a  satisfactory  foundation  in  some 
part  of  the  explanation  of  things.  When  philos- 
ophies of  the  will  have  been  adopted  which  might 
seem  to  make  this  difficult,  it  has  nevertheless 
been  ultimately  clear  that,  however  unsuccessful- 
ly, their  upholders  made  the  attempt,  satisfactory 
to  themselves,  to  maintain  responsibility.  Even 
Spencer,  whose  theories  have  been  so  often  em- 
ployed by  Philistines  to  evacuate  the  moral  facul- 
ty of  all  authority,  insists  upon  ''  rights "  as 
strongly  as  any  one,  and  holds  men  responsible 
for  their  conformity  to  the  moral  standard  which 
he  sets  up, — no  one  more  earnestly  or  unceasing- 
ly. And  if  a  philosoph}^  which  teaches  the  evolu- 
tion of  our  moral  faculties  by  slow  modifications 
from  original  sensations  of  pleasure  and  pain, 
can  at  the  end  be  so  strenuous  in  its  moral  tone, 
surely  the  plain  deliverance  of  the  common 
Christian  conscience  can  be  trusted,  that  man  is 
responsible  for  his  bearing  towards  the  law  of 
duty. 

I  have  purposely  left  the  statement  of  respon- 
sibility incomplete.  There  is  another  element  in 
it,  the  element  of  self-condemnation  in  view  of  de- 
parture from  the  standard  of  duty.  Men  say  of 
themselves,  when  they  have  transgressed  the  law 
of  duty,  I  am  guilty.  What  they  mean  by  this 
is  plainer  to  the  reflecting  mind  by  its  own 
knowledge  than  it  can  be  made  by  any  verbal  def- 
inition.    Guilt  is  not  the  same  as  deformity;  it 


26  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

is  desert  of  moral  condemnation.  The  ugly 
dwarf,  born  misshapen  and  repulsive  in  outward 
appearance,  is  deformed,  and  may  abhor  himself 
as  an  object  from  the  contemplation  of  which  he 
shrinks  with  loathing;  but  this  is  not  moral  con- 
demnation. The  diseased  and  broken  drunkard 
is  equally  ugly;  but  his  view  of  himself  contains 
an  element  not  in  the  mind  of  the  dwarf,  for  he 
views  himself  as  responsible  for  his  condition,  he 
not  only  abhors  but  condemns  himself,  because 
he  has  brought  this  ugliness  upon  himself  by  his 
own  transgression.  He  is  guilty,  not  merely  un- 
fortunate as  the  dwarf  is.  He  condemns  himself 
in  the  forum  of  his  own  Conscience.  The  idea  of 
duty  involves  this  element,  and  the  awakened 
soul,  who  has  been  brought  to  moral  reflection 
upon  the  great  things  of  his  nature  by  the  new 
and  radical  experiences  of  the  New  Birth,  as- 
cribes to  men  in  general  the  same  responsibility 
before  the  law  which  he  recognizes  for  himself. 

The  Christian's  analysis  now  proceeds  a  step 
further.  He  has  got  the  idea  of  duty  and  has 
embraced  it ;  and  now  he  recognizes  that  his  pre- 
vious state  was  a  state  of  sin.  He  was  not  fol- 
lowing the  law  of  duty.  He  may  be  unable  to 
recognize  any  law  or  system  in  his  conduct.  He 
may  find  it  all  disorder.  Now  he  was  following 
the  impulse  of  appetite;  now  the  leading  of  bad 
example ;  now  principles  of  conduct  which  he  rec- 
ognizes, in  the  new  light  which  has  at  last  come 
to  him,  as  wrong.     He  was  drifting  on  a  track- 


Introductory  127 

less  sea,  carried  by  currents  and  impelled  by 
winds  from  unknown  quarters,  towards  a  goal 
utterly  uncertain  to  him  except  as  having  no  se- 
curity of  good  or  repose.  He  did  many  things 
which  he  recognized  as  transgression:  this  was 
positive  sin.  He  neglected  many  a  bidding  of 
duty:  this  was  negative  but  real  sin. 

Examining  himself  still  further,  he  finds  noth- 
ing in  himself  which  was  not  sin.  Did  he  ever 
fully  obey  the  voice  of  conscience  as  such?  Did 
he  ever  view  anything,  not  pleasurable  nor  in 
accord  with  his  general  course  of  life,  simply  as 
duty  and  respond  to  it  as  such?  Even  the  fail- 
ure to  respond  would  be  a  true  response,  if  it 
arose  from  dread  of  some  vague  danger,  from 
compliance  with  custom,  or  from  a  desire  to 
maintain  an  outward  respectability.  He  was 
called  upon  to  do  that,  perhaps  otherwise  unac- 
ceptable, which  appealed  to  him  as  duty,  for 
duty's  sake  alone.  Did  he  ever  do  it?  He  re- 
calls no  example.  He  judges,  therefore,  that  he 
was  a  sinner  and  wholly  a  sinner. 

It  may  be  a  question  whether  this  is  the  actual 
analysis  of  Christian  experience  or  falls  under 
Kaftan's  criticism  and  requires  a  previous  knowl- 
edge of  the  church  dogma  of  entire  human  sinful- 
ness and  inability  as  the  condition  of  its  perform- 
ance. Kaftan  himself  will  not  deny  the  correct- 
ness of  the  analysis,  for  he  lays  down,  in  perfect 
conformity  with  its  result,  the  following  positions 
as  to  sin  in  his  "  Dogmatik  ": — 


a 8  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

"  The  being  and  life  of  man,  of  the  individual 
as  well  as  of  humanity  at  large,  is  sinful  by  na- 
ture, since  it  knows  nothing  of  God's  law,  but,  in 
antagonism  with  the  divine  will,  is  governed  and 
controlled  by  the  law  of  sin,  viz.,  to  seek  self,  its 
desires  and  its  honor.  More  precisely,  it  is  a 
course  of  life  in  actual  antagonism  not  only  with 
the  will  of  God  but  with  his  eternal  essence,  mak- 
ing the  natural  life  a  life  of  sin.  Even  that  which 
is  relatively  good  participates,  on  account  of  the 
connection  in  which  it  stands,  in  the  character  of 
sm. 

So  Kaftan.  But  the  question  may  return,  if 
not  from  him,  Is  the  analysis  correct?  and  it  is 
only  to  be  finally  answered  when  the  result  of 
the  analysis  is  found  to  be  justified  before  the  bar 
of  the  Christian  conscience.  Was  the  sinner  who 
is  now  a  Christian  wholly  a  sinner  in  that  unre- 
generate  period  of  his  life,  as  he  thinks,  so  that, 
as  Kaftan  puts  it,  "  the  relatively  good,"  such  as 
honesty  in  the  common  relations  of  life,  partook 
of  the  "  character  of  sin  "  ? 

We  are  to  remember  that  the  answer  is  before 
the  insistent  demand  of  conscience  that  a'  man 
shall  perform  his  duty.  The  question  is  not 
whether  honesty  is  not  "  relatively  good,"  that  is, 
good  in  the  common  parlance  of  men,  and  im- 
measurably preferable  to  dishonesty.  It  is  sim- 
ply whether  such  honesty  satisfies  conscience.  If 
a  man  is  honest  because  he  has  never  been  tempt- 
ed to  dishonesty,  although  subsequent  experience 


Introductory  19 

is  to  show  that  he  will  fall  as  soon  as  tempted,  is 
he  truly  honest?  Is  honesty  genuine  which  en- 
dures because  men  are  watching  one,  and  so  long 
as  they  are  watching  only  ?  Is  it  genuine  when  it 
is  practised  because  it  is  believed  to  be  the  best 
policy?  These  questions  answer  themselves. 
Nothing  is  honesty  but  that  which  does  the  hon- 
est thing  because  it  is  right,  at  the  behest  of  duty 
recognized  as  supreme  and  obeyed  as  such.  How- 
ever much  better  for  society  a  merely  conven- 
tional honesty  may  be,  so  long  as  it  can  be  pre- 
served, nothing  is  honesty  before  conscience,  and 
nothing  possesses  any  virtue  there  which  is  not 
governed  by  a  supreme  allegiance  to  duty  solely 
as  such,  for  itself, — an  allegiance  unchangeable 
and  conscious.  Now  this  supreme  allegiance  to 
duty  was  just  what  the  Christian  knows  he  lacked 
before  his  new  birth;  and  hence  he  knows  that 
there  was  nothing  in  his  life  which  possessed  the 
character  of  true  virtue.  In  this  sense,  negative- 
ly when  not  positively,  all  was  sin. 

Out  of  this  view,  by  farther  analysis  of  the 
facts  of  conscience,  develops  the  Christian's  view 
of  the  world  apart  from  such  saving  experiences 
as  he  has  himself  had.  As  he  studies  his  own 
nature,  he  learns  the  extent  and  significance  of 
the  law  of  habit.  He  recalls  with  perfect  dis- 
tinctness the  consciousness  of  struggle  and  diffi- 
culty, of  inability  to  obey  the  recognized  law, 
with  which  his  earliest  efforts  to  do  right  were 
accompanied;  or,  if  he  does  not  recall  them,  he 


30  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

finds  them  repeated  in  his  present  unsanctified 
self,  so  that  he  is  often  now  a  contradiction  to 
himself,  desiring  to  obey  the  law  after  the  inward 
man,  but  finding  a  law  in  his  members  warring 
against  the  law  of  his  mind.  Habit,  he  finds, 
tends  towards  the  automatic.  Let  anything  be- 
come habitual,  and  it  will  tend  to  be  done  when 
we  exert  no  positive  volition  in  reference  to  it,  as 
we  walk  without  attention  or  purpose,  each  mo- 
tion followed  by  its  appropriate  counterpart  by 
the  operation  of  an  internal  machinery  which  re- 
quires no  attention  from  the  central  controlling 
consciousness.  And  thus  the  Christian  finds  old 
courses  of  action  persisting  when  they  have  been 
once  formally  renounced,  because  they  depend 
upon  a  disorder  in  him  produced  by  the  law  of 
habit. 

So  much  introspective  personal  observation 
gives  the  thinker.  It  is  against  this  background 
that  his  predominant  choice  is  displayed,  and  he 
sees  the  background  as  he  sees  the  choice.  But 
the  Christian  thinker  is  not  thus  isolated  or  com- 
pelled to  draw  all  his  knowledge  from  himself, 
any  more  than  the  psychologist,  and  he  considers 
other  men  and  learns  as  much  from  them  as  from 
himself.  They,  as  well  as  he,  are  under  the  law 
of  habit.  Habit  is  racial  and  transmissible,  prop- 
agated with  human  nature  itself,  intensified  by 
bad  example,  hardened  into  nature.  'Prevailing 
corruption,  general  evil  tendencies,  universal  sin, 
a  network  of  evil  with  innumerable  ramifications, 


Introductory  31 

an  organized,  determinative  evil  in  the  world 
from  which  no  man  seems  to  escape  and  which 
results  in  bringing  all  men,  until  the  moment 
when  the  new  birth  changes  everything,  under 
the  dominion  of  a  sin  which  leaves  no  action  pure 
and  no  aspiration  entirely  untainted, — this  is 
what  man  sees  as  he  studies  humanity  under  the 
light  of  his  own  spiritual  experience  of  renova- 
tion. 

A  large  view  of  history  leads  to  the  same  result. 
We  find  the  remnants  of  buried  civilizations  in 
Nineveh,  Egypt,  and  Rome.  Empires  have  risen 
only  to  fall;  and  the  cause  of  fall  has  been, 
broadly  stated,  moral  corruption.  Whatever  may 
have  been  true  of  more  elevated  individuals  here 
and  there,  the  evidences  in  painting  and  sculp- 
ture, in  written  word,  in  archaeological  remains, 
of  corrupting  and  dominating  wickedness  as 
characteristic  of  ancient  civilizations,  are  too 
clear  to  be  denied  by  any.  Our  experience  with 
men  of  the  past  through  their  remains  is  the  same 
as  that  with  men  of  the  present,  and  it  is  one  of 
contact  with  dominating  evil.  We  thus  recognize 
in  the  world  a  force,  if  we  may  thus  personify 
what  reveals  itself  to  us  in  innumerable  single 
manifestations,  a  dominating  force  making  for 
evil.  It  is  resisted,  its  reign  disputed,  its  right 
denied,  its  influence  counteracted,  its  damage  re- 
paired by  another  force  of  which  the  Christian 
has  become  conscious  in  his  own  regeneration; 
but  apart  from  this  other  force,  the  world  is  in  the 


32  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

control  of  evil.  It  is  a  kingdom  of  evil,  a  system, 
a  network,  as  I  have  said,  of  evil,  proceeding  from 
a  center,  having  a  dominating  tendency,  as  if  it 
had  a  real  king,  and  as  if  that  king  were  the  enemy 
of  conscience  and  of  the  right  and  of  all  they 
carry   with   them   and   involve. 

This  is  the  Christian  view  of  the  unregenerated 
world.  It  was  expressed  in  the  earliest  circles 
of  Christians  by  the  epithet  "  lost,"  applied  both 
to  men  and  to  the  world  in  which  they  live.  One 
early  saint  wrote :  *'  The  whole  world  lieth  in  the 
evil  one."  He  described  it  as  "  darkness,"  and 
said  it  was  under  "  condemnation,"  a  word  taken 
up  by  another  who  said  that  for  the  regenerate 
there  was  "  no  more  condemnation."  Our 
analysis  has  brought  us  into  agreement  with  the 
church,  apostolic  and  later,  in  the  view  of  the 
guilt,  depth,  universality,  and  organized  power  of 
sin  in  the  world.  And  the  analysis  has  been  di- 
rect, correct,  without  prejudice  and  previous  as- 
sumptions, as  I  think  may  be  fairly  claimed. 

We  have  been  casting  our  glance  backwards 
from  the  moment  of  the  new  birth  to  the  previous 
condition  of  the  Christian.  We  are  now  about  to 
direct  our  consideration  to  another  quarter,  and 
seek  the  source  of  those  influences  which  operate 
upon  the  will  and  lead  it  to  the  great  and  deci- 
sive choice  of  duty  as  the  law  of  life.  But  before 
we  do  this,  it  will  be  well  for  us  to  pause  and 
review  briefly  our  course  to  see  what  light  has 
now  been  thrown  upon  the  nature  of  Christian 


I 


Introductory  23 

experience  and  on  the  probability  of  its  furnish- 
ing us  any  very  valuable  contributions  to  the  sys- 
tem of  evangelical  doctrine. 

1.  We  based  our  whole  effort,  then,  upon  the 
actuality  of  a  distinctive  Christian  experience  in 
the  world.  We  assumed  it.  We  did  not  seek  to 
prove  it,  holding  that  a  form  of  life  which  has 
given  rise  to  the  institutions  and  civilization 
which  have  proceeded  from  Christianity  would 
be  readily  conceded  by  the  most  determined  op- 
ponent of  its  highest  claims  to  possess  a  distinc- 
tive character,  however  he  might  dispute  its 
value. 

2.  We  found  the  central  element  and  ultimate 
fact  in  the  Christian  life  in  the  new  birth,  which, 
on  its  experiential  side,  was  defined  as  the  su- 
preme choice  of  duty  as  such.  By  successive 
analyses  we  found  involved  in  this  experience 
fundamental    Christian   principles.     Thus — 

3.  We  derived  the  supremacy  of  obligation  and 
of  the  moral  faculties  in  man. 

4.  The  idea  of  duty  was  seen  to  convey  the 
principle  of  responsibility. 

5.  The  fact  of  sin,  that  is,  of  failure  to  obey 
conscience  and  perform  duty,  was  seen  to  create 
guilt,  or  liability  to  moral  self-condemnation. 

6.  Sin  was  perceived  to  be  universal  in  human- 
ity and  unrelieved  in  the  individual  by  holiness. 

7.  The  world,  as  the  seat  and  the  active  origi- 
nator of  universal  sin,  was  seen  to  be  a  kingdom 
of  evil,  and  lost. 


34  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

Now  here  already,  at  the  very  threshold  of 
our  subject,  where  we  might  expect  the  outcome 
of  our  studies  to  be  meager  and  should  be  pre- 
pared to  content  ourselves  with  the  promise  of 
future  results  in  the  absence  of  present  perform- 
ance, we  have  found  a  very  considerable  body  of 
doctrine  of  the  most  vital  and  fundamental  char- 
acter, flowing  from  Christian  experience.  If  our 
analysis  has  been  correct  and  our  positions  can 
be  maintained  against  all  comers,  we  may  fairly 
claim  that  the  main  question.  Whether  Christian 
experience  can  yield  material  exact  and  definite 
enough  for  the  purposes  of  theology,  is  already 
settled;  and  from  this  point  we  should  be  justi- 
fied in  waiving  all  polemical  discussion  and  ad- 
vancing to  the  exclusively  constructive  labors  of 
the  positive  theologian.  We  shall  not,  however, 
do  this,  for  we  shall  gain  by  the  specific  reply  to 
objections  farther  on  constant  confirmation  of  re- 
sults already  attained, — and  no  proof  in  theology 
is  so  strong  as  to  dismiss  Hghtly  that  corrobora- 
tion of  verification  which  is  sought  carefully  by 
natural  science  to  its  great  advantage. 

As  we  assumed  at  the  beginning  of  our  discus- 
sion that  there  was  a  Christian  experience,  so 
again,  we  embarked  upon  its  study  without  a  def- 
inite definition  of  the  term;  and,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  we  have  employed  it  in  several  different  sig- 
nifications which  need  to  be  separated  from  one 
another.  Otherwise  we  shall  be  likely  to  fall  into 
confusion  in  our  own  minds,  and  may  be  found 


J 


Introductory  35 

guilty  of  those  logical  fallacies  which  are  always 
committed  when  ideas  are  not  sharply  discrimi- 
nated in  the  mind  of  the  reasoner.  Note,  then, 
the  following  forms  in  which  Christian  experi- 
ence has  already  appeared : — ■ 

1.  The  experience  of  immediate  consciousness, 
as  when  we  discussed  the  choice  of  duty,  the  fact 
and  implications  of  obligation,  and  the  fact  of 
sin  as  characteristic  of  the  pre-regenerate  life  of 
him  who  is  now  a  Christian. 

2.  Remembered  experience.  Thus  pre-regen- 
erate sin  is  to  the  unregenerate  man  a  matter  of 
immediate  consciousness,  but  as  investigated  by 
the  Christian  it  is  no  longer  present,  no  longer 
immediate  consciousness,  but  remembered  expe- 
rience. This  class  of  experience  is,  of  course, 
open  to  all  the  dangers  which  attend  the  use  of 
memory  elsewhere,  and  might  be  of  compara- 
tively little  value  in  the  present  investigation,  ex- 
cept for  the  fact  that  man  has  continued  expe- 
rience of  sin,  even  after  conversion,  and  hence 
has  present  knowledge  of  facts  which  acts  by  the 
law  of  association  to  strengthen  the  memory  and 
render  it  accurate.  As  in  psychology,  the  mem- 
ory is  essential  in  processes  of  religious  introspec- 
tion, and,  if  carefully  employed,  will  produce  here 
as  there  valuable  results. 

3.  Facts  of  consciousness  lying  outside  the  ex- 
clusively religious  sphere,  as  when  we  considered 
the  law  of  habit. 

4.  Observation   of   the    world,   as   when   we 


^6  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

viewed  the  character  of  men  in  general  and  the 
world  as  a  whole,  and  pronounced  it  in  fact  un- 
der the  dominion  of  sin.  This  observation  was, 
however,  conducted  by  a  Christian  and  from  the 
Christian  standpoint ;  and  was  hence  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  that  kind  of  observation  which  we 
have  of  the  processes  of  material  nature,  to 
which  we  must  always  remain  outsiders.  The 
course  of  secular  history  can  scarcely  be  called  a 
part  of  Christian  experience,  as  such, — the  rise 
and  fall,  for  example,  of  Nineveh,  Egypt,  and 
Rome.  Yet  there  is  a  Christian  judgment  upon 
such  events,  the  judgment,  that  is,  which  Chris- 
tian men  form  in  consequence  of  their  Christian 
principles;  and  this  may  be  employed  to  throw 
light  upon  the  meaning  and  scope  of  those  prin- 
ciples. It  is  this  Christian  judgment  which  is 
reckoned  in  the  body  of  Christian  experience. 

5.  The  experience  of  the  original  group  of 
Christians  has  been  briefly  employed  by  reference 
to  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  in  which  it  is 
recorded.  It  has  been  employed  here  merely  in 
confirmation  of  the  analysis  of  present  day  expe- 
rience, since  it  is  seen  to  yield  the  same  general 
view  of  the  world  as  the  Christian  forms  now 
in  the  light  of  his  great  renovating  experience. 
But  if  valuable  for  confirmation,  it  must  be  also 
valuable  for  original  development  of  the  contents 
of  the  experience,  for  it  can  only  confirm  when  it 
is  capable  of  giving  the  same  result  with  the  expe- 
rience confirmed  by  processes  entirely  independ- 


Introductory  37 

ent  of  that  experience.  Hence  there  is  opened 
here  a  prospect  of  still  larger  use  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. What  that  larger  use  ought  to  be  is  still 
a  matter  of  so  much  controversy  that  we  must 
subject  it  to  a  careful  consideration  at  a  later 
point.  Enough  here  to  call  attention  to  its  nec- 
essary place  in  the  development  of  Christian  ex- 
perience,— a  place  so  necessary  that  it  has  inci- 
dentally, we  might  almost  say  inevitably,  intro- 
duced itself  in  the  beginning  of  our  investigation, 
uninvited  and  unexpected. 

6.  Specifically  Christian  history  has  been  em- 
ployed for  the  same  purpose  of  confirmation,  and 
with  the  same  suggestion  of  further  place  and 
necessary  employment  in  the  development  of  ex- 
perience. 

Christian  experience  is  thus  various  in  its 
forms.  Is  it  not  various  also  in  its  evidential 
value?  In  reply  to  this  question  a  concluding 
series  of  remarks  needs  to  be  made,  and  then  we 
shall  have  gathered  up  the  results  of  our  present 
study  and  be  prepared  for  the  transition  to  the 
next  stadium. 

1.  The  certainty  given  by  the  Christian  expe- 
rience which  is  a  matter  of  immediate  conscious- 
ness, is  the  highest  attainable  by  human  beings. 
Such  certainty  pertains  to  the  facts  of  regenera- 
tion, duty,  sin,  and  holiness. 

2.  There  might  be  a  circle  of  truths  gained 
from  experience  by  inference;  although  nothing 
of  this  sort  has  as  yet  been  introduced.     This 


38  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

truth  would  have  a  secondary  degree  of  certainty, 
and  within  this  degree  would  vary  in  clearness 
according  to  the  more  or  less  perfect  character  of 
the  logical  processes  of  inference. 

3.  Certainty  as  to  the  facts  of  observation, 
since  observation  is  dependent  upon  a  great  vari- 
ety of  co-operating  elements,  and  these  lie  for  the 
most  part  outside  of  the  sphere  of  consciousness^, 
will  have  a  still  inferior  degree  of  certainty, — a 
tertiary  degree,  if  you  choose,  but  still  certainty. 

4.  There  might  be  thus  developed  by  more  del- 
icate analysis  a  longer  series  of  descending  grades 
of  certainty  that  might  finally  fade  into  complete 
uncertainty.  Such  an  analysis  would  serve,  how- 
ever, no  useful  purpose,  and  we  may  now  content 
ourselves  with  the  very  important  remark  that 
not  every  deliverance  of  the  Christian  experience 
is  of  equal  evidential  value.  To  Christian  expe- 
rience as  a  whole  no  infallibility  is  to  be  ascribed. 
Indeed,  since  it  is  wholly  subjective  in  its  best  and 
most  valuable  form,  it  is  peculiarly  unfitted  to 
claim  for  itself  the  prerogatives  of  an  infallible 
standard  of  faith.  It  is  always  open  to  denial, 
and  never  has  the  power  of  compelling  more  than 
an  acknowledgment  of  its  possibility.  It  is  of 
varying  value,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
under  varying  circumstances.  Enough  that  its 
value  is  real.  What  that  value  is  in  any  case 
must  be  determined  from  the  case  itself. 

5.  Some  value  belongs  even  to  the  impressions 
and  general  positions  of  Christians  at  large,  with- 


Introductory  39 

out  regard  to  the  grounds,  correct,  incorrect,  or 
lacking,  upon  which  they  are  founded.  Great 
bodies  of  men,  scattered  over  many  lands  and 
ages,  do  not  come  to  common  conclusions  even  of 
this  indefinite  character  without  real  reasons, 
though  these  may  be  too  inarticulate  to  receive 
any  appreciable  expression.  The  emotions  of 
general  Christianity  also  deserve  respect.  When 
a  given  doctrine  is  found  profoundly  to  stir  the 
Christian  heart,  generation  after  generation,  and 
to  promote  piety,  it  receives  thereby  an  element 
of  substantiation  which  cannot  be  safely  neg- 
lected. 

It  is,  then,  to  be  our  problem  to  use  this  mul- 
tifold Christian  experience  according  to  its  own 
inner  logic,  ever  mindful  of  its  nature,  observant 
of  its  limitations,  not  exaggerating  or  diminish- 
ing the  degree  of  certainty  it  affords,  as  a  source 
of  Christian  doctrine.  Our  object  is  primarily 
intellectual;  but,  as  one  of  the  great  theological 
teachers  of  the  present  day  has  forcibly  taught, 
we  are  dealing  with  matters  which  have  no  intel- 
lectual value  in  separation  from  their  direct  re- 
lation to  the  ethical  nature  of  man.  To  know 
must  be  to  do.  In  fact,  knowing  in  any  large 
and  fruitful  way  is  conditioned  upon  doing.  To 
appreciate  the  unfolding  demonstration  of  relig- 
ious truth  from  the  new  birth,  we  must  ourselves 
experience  the  new  birth.  I  therefore  close  the 
discussions  of  this  hour  with  the  remark  that  to 
the  full  understanding  of  the  processes  of  analysis 


40  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

to  be  attemped  in  these  lectures  is  requisite  on  the 
part  of  my  audience  that  each  perform  them  with 
me  by  means  of  the  careful  examination  of  the 
actual  contents  of  his  own  experience;  and  that 
further,  to  analyze  the  Christian  experience,  it  is 
necessary,  first,  to  possess  it.  Before  an  audience 
of  professed  Christians  like  this,  a  speaker  may 
properly  presuppose  the  possession  of  a  Chris- 
tian experience  upon  their  part.  But  it  is,  neith- 
er here  nor  anywhere,  superfluous  to  emphasize 
the  evident  principle  that  none  can  safely  rest  in 
any  such  presupposition  if  he  finds  a  living  ex- 
perience lacking  when  he  begins  the  process  of 
self-examination  and  analysis.  If  this  course  of 
lectures  can  serve  to  give  new  intensity  to  the 
Christian  experience  of  my  hearers  and  to  en- 
large its  extent,  and  if  new  certainty  can  be  added 
to  the  grasp  by  which  they  hold  those  things 
which  we  assuredly  profess  and  believe,  then,  as 
doctrine  is  found  to  flow  from  life,  so  life  will 
flow  from  doctrine,  grace  respond  to  knowledge, 
and  the  men  of  God  be  more  perfectly  furnished 
for  every  good  work.  Unto  the  attainment  of 
such  a  result,  I  humbly  invoke  upon  these  hours 
of  common  study,  the  constant  blessing  of  Al- 
mighty God. 


((UNIVERSITY  J 


LECTURE  II 

THE  ORIGINATING  SOURCE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH 

The  studies  of  the  last  hour  left  us  face  to  face 
with  an  urgent  problem.  We  had  been  survey- 
ing the  world  with  the  eyes  of  the  regenerated 
man,  who  from  the  elevation  of  a  new  experience 
had  looked  backwards  upon  the  world  out  of 
which  he  had  come  and  had  recognized  in  it  a 
kingdom  of  evil.  He  saw  himself  to  have  been 
bad,  and  the  world  like  himself ;  he  perceived  the 
connections  of  evils  and  their  ramifications  and 
interwoven  relations ;  he  realized  the  combination 
and  system  existing  in  society,  making  for  the 
perpetuation  and  intensification  of  evil ;  and,  had 
he  not  himself  experienced  liberation  from  evil's 
thraldom,  he  would  have  believed  its  forces  too 
strong,  its  vigilance  too  great,  its  hostility  to  ev- 
ery good  motion  in  the  heart  too  intense,  to  leave 
possibility  of  escape  by  any.  Yet  he  had  escaped, 
and  like  Lot  upon  the  mountain  top  could  look 
back  upon  the  cities  of  the  plain ;  but,  unlike  Lot, 
he  found  himself  not  alone,  nor  merely  surround- 
ed by  a  few  isolated  individuals,  but  one  of  a 
great  company,  which  on  its  part  was  organized, 
had  constructed  a  kingdom  of  good,  set  over 
41 


42  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

against  that  kingdom  of  evil,  already  engaged  in 
manifold  conflict  with  it,  and  already  having 
many  a  token  of  victory  upon  its  banners. 
Whence  this  liberation,  this  organization  of  souls, 
this  co-operating  activity,  this  large  result?  Is 
there  a  power  at  work  in  the  world,  but  not  of 
it?  What  can  it  be,  if  there  is  such  a  power?  Of 
what  character,  and  from  what  source? 

This  is  the  quest  for  the  origin  of  the  new 
birth;  and  it  may  be  answered,  as  it  often  has 
been,  by  a  simple  reference  to  the  powers  of  man. 
It  is  a  choice,  as  we  have  seen,  on  its  conscious 
side,  and  it  may  be  said  that  this  fact  explains  it. 
A  man  chooses  duty  just  as  another  man  chooses 
self-gratification,  or  as  one  chooses  a  profession. 
The  origination  of  such  a  choice  in  the  gloom  of 
the  kingdom  of  evil  is  thus  no  more  remarkable 
than  the  coming  of  the  day  after  the  night. 

But  is  the  answer  as  easy  as  all  this  ?  Does  the 
suggested  illustration  confirm  it?  Is  the  com- 
ing of  day  nothing  remarkable,  requiring  no  ex- 
planation, entirely  obvious  and  simple  ?  The  ref- 
erence of  the  critical  change  by  which  a  man 
abandons  his  environment  in  the  kingdom  of  evil 
and  becomes  a  new  man,  to  the  powers  of  his  na- 
ture explains  nothing.  Mere  powers  are  no  ex- 
planation of  anything.  The  tree  has  the  power 
of  absorbing  the  water  of  the  earth  carrying  in 
solution  the  mineral  substances  necessary  to  its 
growth,  but  it  dies.  Two  youths  sit  side  by  side 
on  the  benches  of  the  school-room,  possessed  both 


The  New  Birth  43 

of  the  powers  of  acquisition  and  thought,  but  the 
one  becomes  a  scholar  and  the  other  wastes  his 
time  in  play.  One  might  as  well  say  that  the 
power  of  perception  is  all  that  is  required  to  ex- 
plain the  idea  which  I  have  at  this  moment  of  the 
paper  from  which  I  read  and  of  the  characters 
traced  upon  it,  as  to  say  that  a  definite  choice  is 
explained  by  the  mere  power  of  choosing.  When 
a  man  makes  a  bad  choice,  when  a  boy  well  edu- 
cated, the  child  of  good  parents,  trained  in  good 
habits,  chooses  to  plunge  into  drunkenness,  and 
when  in  drunken  frenzy  he  murders  an  inoffen- 
sive neighbor  who  is  trying  to  serve  him,  we  do 
not  say  that  his  power  of  choice  explains  all  this ; 
but  we  answer  the  agonized  cry  of  friends  and 
companions  for  its  cause  by  revealing  the  evil  in- 
fluences about  him,  and  the  slow  approach 
through  the  series  of  foregoing  evil  choices  to  the 
moment  when  the  gratification  of  the  desire  for 
brute  exhilaration  was  more  powerful  than  the 
conviction  of  duty  or  the  sad  reproaches  of 
friends  or  the  fear  of  the  consequences  of  the  loss 
of  self-control.  A  good  choice,  especially  one 
revolutionary  in  its  effect  upon  the  character, 
needs  an  explanation  equally. 

That  explanation  is  not  to  be  derived  from  the 
world  about  the  new-born  man.  That  world  is 
the  kingdom  of  evil,  shot  through,  no  doubt,  like 
cloth  of  gold,  with  gleams  of  good,  but  itself  evil, 
its  tendencies  downwards,  its  influence  not  in 
behalf  of   the    supreme    choice    of    duty.     The 


44  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

Christian  need  not  deny  this  "  good,"  claimed  for 
our  modern  civilization,  which  may  be  said  to 
possess  a  tendency  to  elicit  a  good  choice  from 
the  will,  nor  need  he  undertake  the  difficult  at- 
tempt to  prove  to  others  what  he  assumes  for  him- 
self, that  it  is  all  the  effect  upon  the  kingdom  of 
evil  of  the  progressing  kingdom  of  light.  It  is 
enough  to  ask  the  question  whether  such  tenden- 
cies are  adequate ;  whether  influences  in  behalf  of 
duty  sufficient  to  lead  the  sinner  to  its  supreme 
choice  can  come  from  men  none  of  whom  makes 
such  a  choice  for  himself.  Now  the  fact  of  the 
Christian  choice  divides  humanity  into  two 
classes,  those  who  have  it  and  those  who  have  it 
not,  just  as  the  oath  of  allegiance  separated  our 
army  in  the  year  1861  into  the  loyal  and  the  dis- 
loyal. From  those  who  choose  duty  supremely 
good  influences  must  necessarily  radiate  with  the 
directness  of  light  and  the  kindling  efficiency  of 
the  solar  heat.  Placed  in  public  office  they  make 
for  faithfulness  and  honor,  in  business  for  indus- 
try and  honesty,  in  private  life  for  gentleness  and 
unselfishness.  But  these  are  not  "  the  world," 
not  the  kingdom  of  evil,  for  their  choice  of  the 
good  needs  explanation, — is,  indeed,  the  very 
thing  we  seek  now  to  explain.  Could  these  oth- 
ers produce  it  in  them?  This  is  the  question; 
and  it  can  only  be  answered.  No !  It  is  absolute- 
ly unthinkable.  If  my  influence  is  for  honesty  in 
business  I  may  help  my  associates  keep  them- 


The  New  Birth  45 

selves  honest;  but  shall  I  help  them  to  the  su- 
preme choice  of  duty  if  they  know  that  I  am  in- 
different to  right  in  the  other  relations  of  life, 
mendacious  or  licentious  or  drunken?  The  good- 
ness of  such  a  man  is  not  true  goodness  at  any 
point.  Even  when  he  does  what  is  objectively 
right,  such  as  the  restoration  of  borrowed  money, 
he  does  not  do  the  subjective  right,  the  right  for 
the  sake  of  the  right  alone,  the  right  as  such ;  else 
he  would  do  it  always  and  everywhere.  The  mor- 
als of  the  world  at  large  are  confessedly  founded 
on  custom  and  expediency,  not  on  right.  The  total 
influence  of  such  a  world  is  and  remains  evil, 
against  the  right  as  such,  and  forever  as  incapa- 
ble of  generating  genuine  and  predominating 
goodness  in  any  soul  as  a  dynamo  electricity 
when  no  electricity  has  been  applied  to  it.  A 
bad  man  can  no  more  make  another  man  good 
than  the  eclipsed  sun  can  make  a  noon-day !  To 
attract  towards  an  ideal  of  goodness  that  ideal 
must  be  held  up  conspicuously  and  constantly,  in 
purity  and  perfection.  Even  then  the  effort  to 
generate  goodness  may  fail.  But  the  bad  man 
never  holds  up  that  ideal,  and  hence  never  attracts 
towards  the  good. 

It  seems  to  be  imagined  in  certain  quarters 
that  the  evolution  of  humanity  throughout  the 
long  course  which  antedates  and  follows  the 
dawn  of  history  is  sufficient  to  explain  the  rise  of 
holy  choices  in  some  souls  and  so  in  all  in  whom 


46  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

they  may  actually  be  found.  Mr.  Spencer's  the- 
ories^ would  be  consistent  with  this  idea.  The 
origin  of  all  well  regulated  conduct,  and  thus  ulti- 
mately of  that  conduct  which  we  call  right  and 
wrong,  he  teaches,  is  the  blundering  effort  to 
satisfy  our  cravings.  Men  are  thus  viewed,  in 
strict  analogy  with  what  goes  on  in  the  animal 
kingdom,  as  learning  entirely  by  experience  what 
tends  to  promote  individual  good,  to  propagate 
the  race,  and  maintain  the  social  organism.  That 
conduct  is  at  last  termed  right  which  accomp- 
lishes these  ends.  Now,  evidently,  upon  this  the- 
ory, whatever  is  perceived  to  promote  the  good 
instinctively  desired  will  be  chosen,  and  the  de- 
gree of  approximation  by  any  individual  to  the 
normal  standard  of  conduct  will  be  measured  by 
the  degree  of  intelligence  which  he  possesses. 
Bad  conduct  is  simply  the  result  of  ignorance. 
Just  as  light  increases  will  good  conduct  increase, 
and  the  rise  of  a  supreme  choice  of  duty 
in  a  kingdom  of  evil  would  be  totally  ex- 
plicable, if  the  course  of  that  kingdom,  as  a  prog- 
ress of  evil,  were  experimentally  found  to  limit 
the  acquirement  and  possession  of  good,  whether 
individual  or  collective.  Such  a  choice  would 
be  simply  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
self-centered  and  irregular  pursuit  of  hap-haz- 
ard  delights  was  injurious  and  a  source  of  the 
prevention  of  the  attainment  of  preponde- 
rating desires.  Such  knowledge  must  arise  in 
* "  Data  of  Ethics  ",  chaps.  II.  and  III. 


The  New  Birth  47 

some  minds  in  the  course  of  time  by  the  operation 
of  the  law  of  variation,  and  thus,  out  of  the  evolv- 
ing process,  because  it  was  a  kingdom  of  evil, 
would  come  knowledge  of  the  evil  and  the  renun- 
ciation of  the  same  in  the  interest  of  those  goods 
which  are  essential,  in  the  last  analysis,  to  the 
mere  preservation  of  humanity.  For,  it  may  be 
said  in  explanation  of  this  possibly  questionable 
phrase,  upon  the  evolutionary  hypothesis  associ- 
ation and  the  social  virtues  are  essential  to  the 
progress  of  humanity  ;^  and  its  progress  is  essen- 
tial to  its  preservation.  Thus  the  kingdom  of 
evil,  far  from  being  an  obstacle  to  the  rise  of  the 
good  choice,  and  thus  constituting  the  puzzle  and 
creating  the  inquiry  upon  which  we  have  em- 
barked, is  the  very  source  of  the  good  choice. 
The  appearance,  here  and  there,  of  persons  mak- 
ing this  great  choice  as  perception  shall  arise, 
here  and  there,  of  the  true  tendency  of  things, 
was  to  be  expected. 

We  might  admit  the  explanation  as  long  as  it 
were  confined  to  the  pre-human  history  of  the 
world,  or  as  long  as,  in  the  period  of  human  his- 
tory, the  gratification  of  physical  wants  and  not 
the  fulfillment  of  a  moral  ideal  were  the  good 
sought.  Yet,  even  here,  there  is  an  ideal  held 
up  before  the  mind,  for  brute  and  man  are  seek- 
ing "  fulness  of  life,"  as  in  various  phrase  we  are 
informed.     Such  an  ideal  is  thus  a  confessed  ne- 

*  F.  H.  Giddings,  "  Principles  of  Sociology  ",  Bk.  III., 
chap.  I. 


48  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

cessity,  and  evolution  differs  from  Christian 
philosophy  at  this  point  only  in  the  source  from 
which  the  ideal  is  derived,  making  it  the  instinct- 
ive tendency  of  nature  brought  into  concrete  def- 
inition by  the  contacts  of  life.  Arising  upon  oc- 
casion of  various  experiences,  it  must  still  ante- 
date those  experiences,  or  it  could  never  serve  in 
their  interpretation  and  in  the  selection  of  the  ele- 
ments of  the  good.  But  in  the  sphere  of  human 
history  as  we  know  it,  in  this  actual  world  stand- 
ing now  at  the  threshold  of  the  new  age,  facts 
by  no  means  conform  to  the  theory  presented. 
This  is  not  a  world  where  men  always  follow 
their  knowledge  of  moral  relations  or  even  of  the 
mere  physical  connection  of  certain  courses  with 
well-being.  Men  choose  what  they  know  to  be 
both  wrong  and  injurious.  They  default  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duty.  To  use  the  phrase  of 
the  evolutionists,  they  choose  the  gratification  of 
the  immediate  demands  of  appetite  even  when 
they  know  that  the  perfection  of  their  own  indi- 
vidual life  and  their  relations  to  the  life  of  the 
race  both  forbid  it.  The  supposed  explanation  of 
the  rise  of  good  choices  is  only  possible  when  it 
deals  with  a  world  where  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  sin  in  the  Christian  sense  of  the  word,  where 
evil  is  still  nothing  but  blundering,  and  men  are 
always  following  their  best  knowledge,  in  short, 
where  the  law  of  necessity  reigns.  But  sin  has 
entered,  it  has  become  dominating  in  history,  it 
has  constituted  a  kingdom,  and  hurled  the  moral 


The  New  Birth  49 

ideal  into  the  dust  to  set  upon  its  vacated  throne 
self -gratification,  and  has  thus  made  perverse 
wrong-doing  the  rule  in  the  world.  In  such  a 
world  the  rise  of  holy  choices  does  demand  an 
explanation  by  the  exhibition  of  an  adequate 
cause  from  without.  The  attempt  to  explain  it 
from  within  can  only  succeed  by  denying  the  ex- 
isting world  itself,  with  the  facts  of  sin  and  moral 
degradation.  It  fails  because  the  exemplifica- 
tions of  freedom  cannot  be  explained  by  a  theory 
of  necessity. 

We  return  therefore  to  our  proposition  that 
the  new  choice  of  duty  in  the  Christian's  soul  did 
not  come  from  the  world. 

Neither  did  it  come  from  himself.  It  may 
seem  so.  There  are  forces  of  nature  which  tend 
towards  the  emphasis  of  duty  and  might  con- 
ceivably lead  to  its  choice.  All  those  percep- 
tions of  advantage  which  the  theory  just  re- 
viewed details,  tend,  when  the  mind  is  elevated  to 
some  eminence  from  which  they  are  in  full  view, 
to  recommend  the  right;  for  right  is  beneficial 
and  perceived  utility  is  often  an  index  of  what 
is  right.  The  sinner  has  a  conscience,  and  it  of- 
ten speaks  with  perfect  plainness  in  specific  junc- 
tures of  life.  Nor  are  his  emotions  and  affec- 
tions all  so  depraved  as  to  afford  no  help  in  these 
regards.  Certainly,  if  we  were  reasoning  in  an 
entirely  abstract  sphere,  and  handling  these  facts 
of  human  nature  as  so  many  algebraic  quantities 
whose  real  magnitude  and  denomination  were  en- 


50  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

tirely  unknown  to  us,  we  might  say  that  the  union 
of  perceived  interest,  of  commanded  duty,  and  of 
the  desire  of  good  were  enough  to  explain  the 
choice  of  that  upon  which  they  unite.  But  the 
experience  of  the  Christian  gives  concrete  con- 
tents to  the  a,  h,  and  c  of  the  moral  equation 
He  knows  that  his  perceptions  were  clouded,  his 
conscience  weak,  his  emotions  and  affections  per- 
verted. Life  is  so  intricate  a  network  of  influ- 
ences that  duty  is  scarcely  isolated  in  such  a  way 
as  to  enable  these  varied  lights  to  be  equally  fo- 
cussed  upon  it  together.  A  partial  duty  may  be 
thus  recognized  and  chosen.  But  duty,  general 
and  comprehensive  duty,  all-embracing  and  im- 
perative duty, — with  what  reception  will  that  meet 
in  a  world  where  men  know  themselves  to  be 
choosing  and  fast  grasping  a  multitude  of  things 
with  which  their  interests  and  pleasures  and  even 
their  safety  have  been  suffered  to  become  in- 
volved till  to  choose  plain  and  simple  duty  as  such 
would  be  to  revolutionize  life?  No!  Man  has  a 
fundamental,  settled  bad  will ;  and  to  the  chang- 
ing of  that  none  of  these  feebler  forces,  fitfully 
tending  towards  the  right,  will  ever  prove  itself 
adequate,  nor  even  any  possible  combination  of 
them. 

Not  only  experience  of  himself,  but  the  expe- 
rience gained  in  the  Christian's  history,  confirms 
this  position.  He  has  reasons,  as  we  shall  soon 
see  more  at  length,  to  ascribe  the  initiative  in  his 
conversion  to  something  exterior  to  himself;  and 


The  New  Birth  51 

he  knows  that  he  did  not  even  co-operate  with 
that  gracious  and  beneficent  visitor,  because  he 
remembers  how  he  struggled  against  him  as  with 
the  violence  of  the  madman.  In  fact  he  was  mad, 
mad  with  sin.  He  recapitulated  in  himself  per- 
haps the  experience  of  Paul,  finding  himself  an- 
other "  captive  to  the  law  of  sin  and  death,"  and 
crying  at  last,  "  O !  wretched  man  that  I  am !  " 
The  real,  practical  slavery  to  sin,  whatever  it  may 
be  metaphysically,  forbids  to  his  experience  the 
entertainment  of  the  idea  that  freedom  came  from 
within.  It  is  no  function  of  jailors  to  set  prison- 
ers free! 

Not  from  the  world,  not  from  himself,  did  this 
holy  choice  of  duty  come.  Whence  did  it?  In- 
terest accumulates  upon  the  question,  and  already 
presentiments  of  a  great  discovery  seem  to  attend 
its  self-suggesting  solution.  But  let  us  not  has- 
ten or  leap  with  the  bound  of  an  intuitive  faculty 
to  the  answer.  Let  us  patiently  follow  each  mi- 
nutest element  of  the  developing  reply. 

It  was  mediated,  probably,  by  finite  agencies, 
by  men  who  had  themselves  experienced  the 
same  change.  Not  the  kingdom  of  evil  is  its 
origin  but  the  kingdom  of  light!  What  theolo- 
gians have  generally  called  "  the  means  of  grace," 
the  Scriptures,  the  public  preaching  of  the  word, 
private  ministrations  of  good  men,  with  the  pray- 
ers of  friends,  and  the  discipline  of  life  among 
men,  were  the  occasion  of  our  perceiving  our 
duty  and  turning  away  from  our  sin.     Yet  these 


52  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

things  were  all  "  means "  as  they  are  rightly 
termed,  and  we  seek  that  of  which  they  are  the 
instrumentalities,  the  grace  itself,  the  ultimate  ex- 
planation which  shall  account  for  the  first  orig- 
ination of  a  good  choice  in  any  man,  and  for  the 
existence  of  any  kingdom  of  light,  as  well  as  for 
the  shining  of  that  light  in  our  own  souls. 

When  I  search  my  own  history  before  I  chose 
duty,  if  that  choice  is  a  definite  and  well  remem- 
bered event  in  my  life,  I  find  that  it  was  the  cul- 
mination of  a  considerable  series  of  previous 
events,  and  no  doubt  connected  with  many  others 
which  I  do  not  remember.  There  was  the  pa- 
tient training  of  a  religious  mother,  the  instruc- 
tions of  faithful  teachers,  the  hearing  of  the  gos- 
pel, the  experience  of  transgression,  culminating 
in  a  deep  sense  of  personal  sinfulness  and  a  long- 
ing desire  for  the  forgiveness  and  the  favor  of 
God.  It  may  be  that  I  displayed  a  peculiar  hard- 
ness, and  was  broken  by  a  great  terror  springing 
out  of  a  definite  and  shocking  fall,  and  the  vision 
of  merited  punishment  on  its  way  to  seize  me. 
It  may  be  that  at  the  moment  of  my  chief  anxiety, 
when  I  was  melted  in  sorrow  and  just  then  ac- 
cessible to  well  adapted  words  from  some  skillful 
adviser,  a  gentle  ministrant  of  warning  and  con- 
solation was  sent  to  me  who  could  speak  the  pre- 
cise message  I  required.  Or,  I  may  have  been 
snatched  out  of  bad  companionships  and  corrupt- 
ing occupations  and  brought  to  a  place  of  leisure 
and  solitude,  where  my  mind  was  susceptible  to 


The  New  Birth  53 

new  impressions,  and  where  the  Christian  life 
commended  itself  to  my  newly  opened  receptive- 
ness  by  unanticipated  examples  of  its  sweetness 
and  power,  and  where  I  speedily  yielded.  Or,  I 
was  led  by  repeated  falls  before  some  special 
temptation,  recognized  and  dreaded,  and  by  the 
repeated  failures  of  partial  reformations,  and  by 
accumulating  despair,  to  grasp  suddenly  amid  my 
engulfing  sorrows  at  some  rescuing  truth  cast 
out  by  no  visible  human  agency  from  the  imper- 
sonal Bible.^  In  view  of  such  considerations  I 
feel  the  irresistible  impression  that  there  was 
higher  intelligence  presiding  among  all  these  low- 
er ones,  co-ordinating  their  efforts  and  combining 
their  influences  upon  the  vital  point  of  action 
within  me  and  eliciting  my  final  choice.  And 
when  I  reflect  upon  my  life  since,  when  I  see 
where  I  am  and  what  I  am  doing  in  the  world, 
how  I  have  been  led  to  this  point,  where  I  have 
turned  half  unconsciously,  or  wholly  so,  away 
from  avenues  to  wealth  and  honor,  how  my  eyes 
have  often  been  shut  to  possibilities,  and  often 
opened  to  hopes  that  still  remain  only  hopes,  how 
arguments  determinative  to  other  men  have  gli- 
ded over  me  without  impression  and  others  usual- 
ly brushed  aside  with  contempt  have  seemed  to 
me  great  and  decisive,  and  how  all  have  con- 
verged upon  the  present  moment  and  work,  mak- 
ing me  fit  for  this  and  unfit  for  that  other  lot 

^To  all  these  epitomes  of  individual  experience  his- 
toric names  might  be  attached. 


54  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

which  some  companion  of  my  youth  has  come  to 
fill,  I  recognize  in  all  this  plan  and  guidance ;  and 
I  see  with  tenfold  clearness  now  that  there  was 
therefore  plan,  agency,  personally  guided  forces 
in  that  original  choice  by  which  I  gave  myself  to 
the  good  and  from  which  all  the  rest  has  come. 

I  venture  to  say  that  such,  with  infinite  varia- 
tion of  degree  of  definiteness  and  of  detail  in  in- 
dividual cases,  is  the  verdict  of  every  Christian  in 
the  review  of  his  personal  history,  if  that  have 
been  marked  enough  to  invite  analysis  and  if  he 
be  possessed  of  the  requisite  analytical  power  to 
form  a  correct  conclusion.  I  have  selected  the 
example  of  some  one  who  in  the  years  of  his  ma- 
ture manhood  has  made  a  definite  decision  for 
right  as  a  typical  case  by  which  all  less  clear  cases 
may  be  rightly  judged.  But  the  supposition  of 
typical  cases  is  not  necessary  to  the  argument. 
Every  mature  Christian  can  follow  the  plan  in  his 
own  life  more  or  less  fully,  and  can  no  more 
doubt  it  than  he  can  the  existence  of  plan  in  the 
outcome  of  the  process  by  which  his  physical 
frame  has  resulted  from  the  first  contact  of  two 
simple  cells  through  all  its  marvellous  history  of 
growth.  Plan  in  the  physical  world,  and  plan 
in  this  inner,  spiritual  world  of  the  Christian's 
distinctive  experiences,  rest  on  the  same  analysis 
of  analogous  facts;  and  as  the  argument  from 
the  one  to  intelligence  in  the  universe  is  simple, 
direct,  and  conclusive,  so  it  is  in  the  other.  A 
person,  above  the  means  operating  in  my  conver- 


The  New  Birth  55 

sion  and  presiding  over  their  adaptation  and  ap- 
plication, is  the  only  adequate  explanation  of  that 
event. 

I  come  thus  in  conversion  in  contact  with  a 
Person.  Just  as  I  have  contact  and  know  other 
personalities  through  the  total  of  impressions 
which  they  make  upon  me,  so  I  know  this  Person 
through  what  I  receive  from  Him.  We  often 
suppose  ourselves  to  be  in  much  more  real  and 
tangible  contact  with  men  than  with  God.  But 
is  it  so  ?  What  is  even  "  tangibility  "  but  the  ca- 
pacity of  finally  affecting  my  mental  self  in  some 
definite  way  ?  Ultimately  all  the  "  contact "  of 
finite  personalities  is  through  the  ideas  received 
in  the  soul.  In  this  sense  I  come  literally  in  "  con- 
tact "  with  God ;  and  is  it  any  wonder  that  at 
times  the  impression  made  by  his  agency  should 
be  so  direct  and  person-like  that  men  should 
have  what  they  called  a  "  consciousness  "  of  his 
presence  ?  Is  it  not  such,  if  there  is  ever  the  con- 
sciousness of  any  presence?  And  what  is  it  but 
a  natural  objectification  of  real  inner  processes 
when  some  such  men  have  seemed  to  hear  the  in- 
ward and  God-given  thoughts  of  their  souls  borne 
to  them  upon  the  words  of  audible  speech  from 
the  divine  presence?  Christian  experience  in  its 
more  pronounced  and  remarkable  forms  thus  of- 
ten testifies  to  a  consciousness  of  the  divine  which 
is  to  be  respected  as  the  intensified  degree  of  that 
which  every  Christian  virtually  has  in  the  expe- 
riences of  the  new  birth. 


^6  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

Thus  the  exterior  cause  of  conversion  has  be- 
come to  the  Christian  apprehension  a  Person. 
But  the  analysis  of  the  fundamental  Christian  ex- 
perience cannot  stop  here.  The  character  of  the 
result  at  which  the  persuasive  influences  assem- 
bled and  applied  by  this  Person  were  directed, 
and  of  the  object  upon  which  they  were  expend- 
ed, reveals  something  of  his  own  character.  Two 
aspects  immediately  attract  us,  the  one,  that  the 
action  promoted  by  them  is  holy  action,  the  choice 
and  consequent  performance  of  the  good  in  its 
clearest  and  highest  known  form,  as  recognized 
duty;  and  the  other,  that  there  was  no  merito- 
rious cause  in  the  unrepentant  and  still  rebellious 
sinner  why  this  exalted  Person  should  have  thus 
initiated  a  saving  process  in  his  soul.  As  aiming 
at  the  production  of  holiness,  he  must  himself  be 
holy;  and  as  coming  self-moved  to  bestow  the 
greatest  conceivable  favor  on  the  undeserving, 
he  must  be  determined  by  a  love  which  is  impar- 
tial and  embraces  all  men,  since  it  asks  for  no 
reason  in  the  man,  but  breaks  over  the  obstacle 
of  sin,  and  brings  salvation  to  him  who  has  no 
merit.  It  is  only  the  further  explication  of  the 
implications  of  the  history  of  conversion  as  al- 
ready traced,  when  it  is  added  that  this  holy  Per- 
son must  also  be  conceived  as  unlimited,  since  in 
his  government  over  the  history  of  individuals 
by  which  he  guides  their  lives  towards  conver- 
sion, is  involved  his  government  over  the  world 
and  all  the  universe ;  for  no  event  can  be  so  small 


The  New  Birth  57 

but  that  it  might  imperil  the  result  in  any  or  every 
case  of  salvation,  if  only  it  were  permitted  to  take 
its  way  undirected  and  unrestrained. 

I  hint  at  these  courses  of  argument  rather  than 
fully  develop  them,  because  they  are  nothing  new 
in  form,  having  been  long  used  by  the  great  theo- 
logians in  the  derivation  of  the  idea  of  God  from 
the  facts  of  the  material  world.  They  apply  with 
equal  cogency  to  the  facts  of  the  spiritual  world 
of  inner  experience,  for  the  arguments  differ  in 
no  respect  but  in  the  matter  with  which  they  are 
concerned.  Thus  familiar  in  form  and  cogent  in 
substance,  they  have  brought  us  to  the  recogni- 
tion, in  the  characteristic  and  initial  experiences 
of  the  Christian  life,  of  an  infinite  and  holy  Per- 
son as  their  cause ;  and  to  this  Person,  loving  and 
gracious,  we  assign  the  name  GOD. 

I  would  emphasize  thus  the  regularity  and  co- 
gency of  this  proof  of  God's  being  because  I  wish 
to  emphasize  still  more  strongly  the  fact  that  it 
is  a  peculiarly  Christian  proof.  It  begins  in  facts 
which  no  one  but  a  Christian  knows,  and  thus 
could  originate  with  no  one  else.  Historically, 
also,  it  is  the  Christian  proof;  for,  beginning 
with  Abraham,  there  developed  in  his  family  and 
through  long  generations  among  the  people  of 
Israel,  the  great  outlines  of  this  proof,  under  the 
guidance  of  a  living  experience.  Jacob  learnt 
God's  omnipresent  providential  care  by  what  he 
experienced  at  Bethel,  David  among  the  rocks  of 
Engedi,  Hezekiah  in  the  deliverances  of  his  sick- 


58  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

bed,  the  people  as  a  whole  in  the  Exodus  and  the 
Captivity.  The  proof  came  to  its  culmination  in 
the  teachings  of  our  Master,  who  first  distinctly 
declared  "  God  is  a  Spirit "  and  condensed  the 
gospel  in  the  sentence,  "  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  sent  his  only  Son."  And,  further,  it  is 
found  nowhere  else  than  in  the  circle  of  Hebrew- 
Christian  religious  experience.  Even  Plato, 
whose  conception  of  God  rises  confessedly  high- 
est among  heathen  writers,  never  quite  makes  him 
the  sole  ultimate  cause  of  all  things,^  nor  in  all 
his  ascriptions  to  him  of  beneficent  regard  for 
men  rises  quite  to  the  height  of  true  benevolence,* 
so  as  to  give  him  the  moral  character  ascribed  to 
him  by  the  Christian  experience  of  unmerited 
grace.  The  Christian  idea  of  God  as  the  infinite 
and  personal  First  Cause  whose  character  is  love 
stands  alone  in  the  history  of  human  thought, 
lifting  itself,  Shasta-like,  in  the  dazzling  brilliance 
of  its  perfect  crown  of  eternal  purity  above  all 
the  grovelling  practices  of  heathenism,  and  above 
all  the  feeble  efforts  of  the  untaught  soul  to  for- 
mulate the  supreme  excellence  for  itself.  It  is 
thus — let  the  point  be  well  marked — it  is  thus  not 
only  derivable  from  Christian  experience  by  the 
processes  of  reflective  thought,  but  it  has  actually 

*  There  is  always  the  dualistic  matter  out  of  which  the 
world  is  formed,  even  when  it  fades  into  the  fir}  or, 
which  has,  in  spite  of  its  name,  some  shadowy  exist- 
ence. 

'  See  Jowett's  Plato,  introduction  to  the  Timaeus,  §  3. 


The  New  Birth  59 

been  so  derived,  and  is  therefore  the  first  great 
contribution  of  Christian  experience  to  the  theol- 
ogy of  the  church  and  to  the  speculations  of  the 
world.  For,  when  speculation  has  attempted 
critically  to  ground  the  idea  of  God  in  reason,  as 
in  the  days  of  Kant,  she  has  uniformly  pre-sup- 
posed  the  exclusively  Christian  ideas  of  causality 
and  goodness  in  the  Divine^,  historically  derived 
from  Christianity,  or  she  has  lapsed  with  Hegel 
into  a  pantheism  which  has  been  the  negation  of 
God. 

It  would  be  a  pleasant  task,  here  anticipating 
the  whole  work  of  Christian  reflection  upon  the 
fundamental  ideas  of  God  gained  in  the  experi- 
ence of  salvation,  to  trace  the  development  of  the 
divine  attributes,  till  the  idea  of  God  was  attained 
in  its  fulness ;  and,  particularly,  to  trace  the  fruits 
of  the  knowledge  of  God  in  Christ  from  the  hour 
when  the  Master  said,  "  He  that  hath  seen 
me  hath  seen  the  Father,"  till  Paul  knew 
God  as  the  "  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ," 
and  John  said,  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved 
God,  but  that  he  loved  us  and  sent  his  Son,"  in 
both  of  which  expressions  is  embosomed  the  idea 
of  the  divine  love.  But  we  must  impose  upon 
ourselves  the  limitations  for  space's  and  topic's 
sake  that  the  conditions  under  which  this  study 
is  conducted  demand;  and,  now,  having  reached 
the  first  great  conclusion  from  the  initial  expe- 

*  See  Ritschl,  "  Rechtfertigung  und  Versohnung ", 
vol.  III.,  p.  184,  first  edition. 


6o  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

riences  of  the  new  birth,  go  on  to  draw  still  oth- 
er immediate  conclusions  ere  we  advance  to  fur- 
ther discussions.  One  remark  as  to  the  degree 
of  certainty  attained  through  experience  as  to  the 
being  of  God.  The  facts  of  a  fundamental  choice^ 
of  motives  operating  upon  me  and  eliciting  it,  of 
subsequent  harmony  introduced  into  my  soul,  are 
all  matters  of  the  immediate  consciousness,  and 
thus  as  certain  to  me  as  my  own  existence.  The 
existence  of  God  is  evidently  certain  with  a  sec- 
ondary degree  of  certainty,  as  the  product  of  a 
rational  process  of  inference.  I  know  it  medi- 
ately, through  facts  which  are  not  identical  with 
it,  through  what  God  himself  does  for  me.  It  is 
not  therefore  uncertain ;  but  it  is  secondarily  cer- 
tain,— certain  still,  but  not  immediately  and  pri- 
marily so.  We  thus  pass  on  our  way  towards 
truths  which  are  certain  by  still  inferior  degrees 
of  certainty,  as  was  premised  at  the  close  of  the 
first  lecture ;  and  clearness  of  thought,  as  well  as 
the  demands  of  the  practical  use  of  our  certainty, 
requires  that  we  should  constantly  mark  the  vary- 
ing degrees  as  we  proceed.  In  this  way,  while 
claiming  much  for  Christian  experience,  we  shall 
not  claim  too  much. 

But,  now,  still  lingering  in  the  region  of  the 
immediately  certain,  we  remark  the  consequences 
for  the  Christian,  of  the  change  through  which 
he  has  passed  in  conversion.  The  first  is  what 
we  ordinarily  call  forgiveness,  but  which  we  must 
now  designate,  since  we  are  describing  what  is 


The  New  Birth  6i 

accurately  the  experience  of  the  Christian,  and 
not  even  that  experience  in  its  secondary  ele- 
ments, as  a  sense  of  harmony  and  freedom  of 
soul.  There  was  self-condemnation  for  con- 
scious sin,  the  resistance  of  the  will  against  the 
urgent  motives  for  holiness,  the  abnormal  excite- 
ment of  the  desires  for  unworthy  objects,  and  all 
the  turmoil  of  that  war  in  the  members,  the  out- 
lines of  which  do  not  require  retracing  here.  Now 
comes  harmony,  self-approval  in  place  of  con- 
demnation, the  glad  acquiescence  of  the  will  with 
perceived  duty,  the  stilling  of  unruly  emotions 
and  desires,  and  the  cessation  of  the  tumult  of 
inner  war.  And,  if  not  every  inner  conflict  seems 
permanently  set  at  rest,  it  is  perceived  now  that 
all  the  higher  and  purer  and  more  normal  ele- 
ments of  the  man  are  at  perfect  harmony  with  his 
new  and  governing  choice. 

This  is  essentially  salvation.  If  the  powers  of 
a  man  can  be  always  in  harmony,  if  he  can  al- 
ways choose  the  right,  if  he  finds  high  ideals  set 
before  him,  and  if  he  always  responds  to  them 
and  goes  forward  in  harmony  of  soul  to  their 
successive  incorporation  in  his  being,  and  if  in 
all  this  he  is  in  contact  with  God  and  is  the  object 
of  the  divine  guidance  and  love,  this  is  "  life," 
and  "  eternal  life."  It  would  have  the  highest 
subjective  value  to  the  man  who  knew  nothing 
outside  of  himself,  for  it  would  be  for  him, 
though  he  vStood  in  perfect  isolation  from  other 
moral  beings,  that  fulness  of  life  which  evolution 


62  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

teaches  all  living  things  desire.  But  when  he  is 
known  to  be  a  member  of  a  moral  community, 
every  other  member  of  which  will  bestow  upon 
him  the  same  moral  approval  in  his  present  atti- 
tude of  allegiance  to  duty,  its  value  is  enhanced ; 
and  when  he  has  learned  to  view  himself  as  un- 
der the  guidance  of  God  in  this  new  spiritual 
development,  he  ascribes  to  the  divine  mind  the 
same  moral  judgment  which  human  agents  form 
in  reference  to  him.  Then  first  his  subjective 
experiences  obtain  a  true  objective  validity,  and 
the  internal  harmony  of  the  human  soul  becomes 
the  forgiveness  of  God.^ 

Thus  we  reach  a  second  great  contribution  of 

*  One  thing  is  certain.  The  sense  of  peace  is  not  an 
act  of  the  soul  forcing  itself  into  some  artificial  state,  or 
even  voluntarily  and  intentionally  producing  any  state 
whatever,  natural  or  unnatural.  Forgiveness  often  comes 
unexpectedly,  contrary  to  prejudice,  while  the  soul  still 
believes  itself  unconverted,  often  by  what  seem  to  be 
inexplicable  outward  phenomena,  especially  in  the  case 
of  the  illiterate  who  are  little  used  to  self-examination. 
The  Christian  reasoning  is  simple.  Here  is  an  effect 
which  bears  the  marks  of  an  objective  result  of  certain 
spiritual  conditions.  Those  conditions  originate  in 
divine  action;  therefore  we  conclude  that  the  result  is 
of  divine  origin.  Or  viewed  independently,  these  ex- 
periences are  the  bringing  of  the  soul  to  a  harmony  for 
which  it  would  seem  to  be  designed,  but  which  it  has 
not  had  before.  The  result  is  conformity  to  what  seems 
to  be  the  original  plan  of  the  soul.  It  is  itself,  therefore, 
not  accidental,  not  merely  natural  in  distinction  from 
supernatural,  but  originates  in  the  same  source  with  the 
plan  itself,  that  is,  with  God.    God  truly  forgives  sin. 


The  New  Birth  63 

Christian  experience  to  evangelical  theology,  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith.  Subjectively, 
justification  can  be  nothing  but  forgiveness.  The 
Christian  by  exercising  faith,  that  is,  in  tlie  com- 
plete surrender  which  throws  his  soul  wholly 
upon  God  for  salvation,  experiences  forgiveness. 
He  requires  nothing  else,  whether  mediation  of  a 
priesthood  or  performance  of  good  works.  He 
is  justified  by  faith  alone. 

This  is  the  logical  proof  of  the  doctrine  from 
experience,  and  it  is  complete.  But,  historically 
speaking,  it  was  experience  that  gave  the  church 
the  doctrine.     Careful  study  of  Luther's  career^ 

*  Luther  says  once,  in  commenting  upon  Galatians 
(chap,  iii.  v.  2)  :  "  So  we  also  at  this  day,  convicted  by 
the  testimony  of  our  own  conscience,  are  constrained 
to  confess  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  not  given  by  the  law 
but  by  the  hearing  of  faith.  For  many  heretofore  in  the 
papacy  have  gone  about  with  great  labor  and  study  to 
keep  the  law,  the  decrees  of  the  Fathers,  and  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Pope;  and  some,  with  painful  and  continual 
exercises  in  watching  and  praying,  did  so  weary  and 
weaken  their  bodies  that  afterwards  they  were  able  to 
do  nothing ;  whereby,  notwithstanding,  they  gained  noth- 
ing else  but  that  they  miserably  afflicted  and  tormented 
themselves.  They  could  never  attain  to  a  quiet  con- 
science and  peace  in  Christ  but  continually  doubted  of 
the  good  will  of  God  toward  them.  But  now,  since  the 
gospel  teacheth  that  the  law  and  works  do  not  justify, 
but  faith  alone  in  Jesus  Christ,  hereupon  followeth  a 
most  certain  knowledge  and  understanding,  a  most  joy- 
ful conscience,  and  a  true  judgment  of  every  kind  of  life, 
and  of  all  things  whatsoever."  This  is,  as  it  were,  a 
history  of  his  own  religious  life,  and  exhibits  how  the 


64  Christian  Life  and  Theolagy 

will  illustrate  how  completely  his  convictions 
rooted  in  his  experience,  and  how  he  derived 
from  it  that  glowing  eloquence,  that  irresistible 
torrent  of  mingled  feeling  and  logic,  which  swept 
away  all  the  opposition  of  his  adversaries  and  im- 
parted to  those  he  won  a  large  measure  of  his 
own  rock-like  certainty.  And  I  think  we  may 
say  that  historically  it  is  Christian  experience 
which  has  sustained  this  doctrine  in  the  various 
Protestant  communions.  It  is  not  enough  that 
the  Scriptures  are  so  clearly  for  it,  for  in  the  pe- 
culiar struggle  which  Protestant  evangelical  the- 
ology has  had  to  fight,  she  has  been  confronted  by 
a  foe  which  claimed  the  sole  power  to  interpret 
the  Scriptures  and  met  every  argument  from  ex- 
egesis by  one  from  authority.  But  when  Rome 
put  forward  her  priesthood  as  essential  to  the 
procurement  of  forgiveness  from  God,  the  Prot- 
estant community  could  answer  that  without  a 
"  priesthood  "  she  found  herself  in  the  possession 
of  the  spiritual  presence  and  favor  of  God,  and 
without  an  infallible  earthly  guide,  she  found  her- 
self acquainted  with  the  way  of  salvation.^  To 
Rome's  assertion  of  impossibility  she  opposed  the 
fact.     Had  she  not  known  with  the  immediate 

new  conceptions  of  salvation  had  entered  into  the  in- 
most consciousness  of  the  times. 

*  I  take  the  liberty  to  refer  to  another  work  by  my- 
self, "  The  Fundamental  Ideas  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  ",  pp.  T>>  and  189,  for  further  development  of 
this  thought.  It  is  also  resumed  in  the  sixth  lecture 
below. 


The  New  Birth  65 

certainty  of  the  direct  experiences  of  the  soul,  the 
claims  of  an  ancient  and  imposing  institution,  the 
weakness  of  courses  of  reasoning  founded  upon 
propositions  which  were  themselves  objects  of 
dispute,  and  the  natural  influence  on  the  mind  of 
the  terrible  struggle  at  arms  and  the  immense 
sacrifices  required  to  sustain  Protestant  liberties 
for  a  full  century,  would  surely  have  led  to  final 
surrender.  But  because  of  her  knowledge  this 
was  impossible.  Successive  leaders  re-exempli- 
fied the  same  fundamental  truths.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  was  as  clear  and  firm  in  the  Protestant 
principles  as  Luther  himself ;  and  thus  it  came  to 
pass  that  he  "  rescued  at  Breitenfield  " — as  others 
had  done  elsewhere — "  religious  freedom  for  the 
world."'  And  to-day,  because  of  the  continued 
testimony  of  experience,  this  doctrine  maintains 
its  place  without  noteworthy  opposition  as  the 
fundamental  doctrine  of  the  evangelical  system. 
We  have  already  arrived  by  analytical  develop- 
ment at  the  activity  of  God  as  the  ultimate  ground 
of  the  conversion  of  the  Christian.  God  moves, 
when  this  decisive  moment  of  the  individual  life 
draws  near,  to  elicit  its  determinative  choice. 
Christian  reflection  has  sharpened  this  statement 
to  the  further  one,  that  he  always  thus  initiates 
the  train  of  influences  leading  to  conversion,  and 

*The  inscription  on  the  Breitenfeld  monument  near 
Leipzig : — 

"  Rettete  am  Breitenfeld 
Glaubensfreiheit  fiir  die  Welt." 


66  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

that  this  great  choice  has  not  only  its  ultimate  oc- 
casion but  its  originating  source  in  the  divine 
activity.  Man  never  comes  self-moved  to  repent- 
ance; but  God  always  moves  him.  This  is  the 
doctrine  styled  in  theological  nomenclature,  "  pre- 
venient  grace." 

Its  main  contention,  that  God  moves  man  to  re- 
pentance, is  clearly  the  voice  of  experience,  as  we 
have  already  abundantly  seen,  and  no  further 
proof  is  here  required.  The  only  occasion  of 
question  will  be  the  addition  of  the  word  "  al- 
ways "  in  the  formulation  of  the  doctrine.  Does 
man  never  move  first  towards  God  ?  Granted  that 
my  own  experience  is  that  I  was  divinely  guided 
in  my  choice,  can  I  say  that  no  man,  coming  to  a 
sense  of  himself  as  a  sinner,  just  as  men  come  to 
know  that  they  are  Europeans  or  Africans,  ever 
turned  away  from  sin  and  sought  God  ?  Can  ex- 
perience render  any  such  proof  till  every  man 
that  was  ever  converted  has  been  interrogated, 
and  all  have  said,  "  I  did  not  come  self-moved  to 
God  "  ?  And  can  it  be  claimed  that  such  would 
be  the  universal  answer  when  Pelagius  and  the 
Pelagians  of  every  age,  some  of  them  doubtless 
good  men,  and  presumably  speaking  under  the 
illumination  of  their  own  experience,  have  denied 
the  doctrine  of  prevenient  grace  ? 

We  may  grant  at  once  that  experience,  if  it  is 
to  include  everything  that  has  been  felt  or  uttered 
on  the  subject,  cannot  prove  the  doctrine  before 
us.     We  may  go  further  than  that  and  admit, 


The  New  Birth  67 

yes,  even  advance  and  emphasize  the  principle 
that  mere  experience  can  never  give  us  a  strictly 
demonstrated  universal  proposition.  We  seek 
only  the  general  rule,  the  practically  universal 
proposition,  the  great  religious  fact  of  immediate 
and  practical  value  and  of  unspeakable  import- 
ance, that  God  is  the  originating  cause  of  the  new 
birth.  Experience  can  certainly  give  us  general 
rules  in  religion,  as  she  can  in  physics  or  in  chem- 
istry ;  and,  it  may  be,  she  can  suggest  more. 

Experience,  then,  has  something  more  to  say 
than  simply  that  I,  the  subject  whose  experience 
is  demanded,  refer  my  new  life  to  God  as  its  sole 
origin.  Such  is  my  testimony,  but  I  found  my 
opinion  as  to  my  own  case  on  grounds  that  apply 
to  others  also.  I  have  examined  my  own  self, 
and  I  see  no  effective  tendencies  either  of  will  or 
of  emotion  towards  the  commands  of  conscience 
and  the  highest  intellectual  perceptions  of  my  in- 
terest, which  would  explain  my  final  action.  In 
fact,  conversion  was  the  direct  reversal  of  con- 
stant previous  courses  of  choice.  If  sin  can  be 
properly  called  consistent,  I  was  a  consistent  and 
persistent  sinner.  And  so  were  other  men.  It 
is,  therefore,  not  simply  because  I  actually  came 
to  God  under  the  guidance  of  his  providence  that 
I  judge  others  always  to  do  so ;  but  I  come  to  the 
perception  of  the  fact  that  I  was  thus  personally 
led  by  divine  providence,  guided  by  specific  rea- 
sons which  are  general  in  their  application  and 
compel  me  to  infer  the  necessity  of  the  same 


68  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

leadership  for  all  men.  I  did  not  merely  receive, 
I  required  this  leadership ;  and  so  do  all.  Not  a 
piece  of  chance  good  fortune  is  it  that  has  befal- 
len me,  but  a  divine  condescension  to  my  bitter 
and  completest  necessity  that  has  rescued  me ;  and 
the  same  necessity  encompasses  every  one  born 
with  the  nature  and  amid  the  surroundings  which 
belong  to  this  world-wide  kingdom  of  evil. 

But,  now,  this  analysis  of  experience  is  for  us 
who  make  it  entirely  subjective.  It  will  be  nec- 
essary for  us  ere  we  have  advanced  many  steps 
further  in  this  study  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  inves- 
tigation so  as  to  include  more  objective  elements ; 
and  it  may  be  that  some  of  you  will  require  for 
your  best  progress  that  we  should  make  this  ad- 
vance now.  I  may  be  perfectly  certain  for  my- 
self, you  say,  that  given  experiences  admit  of  only 
one  interpretation;  but  when  I  hear  others  give 
another  interpretation,  as  different  from  mine  as 
the  color  red  from  green,  I  begin  to  wonder 
whether  I  am  not  suffering  under  a  spiritual  color 
blindness.  True,  knowledge  about  myself  is 
knowledge  about  man ;  but  I  begin  to  think  it  as 
necessary  to  test  my  spiritual,  as  it  would  be  un- 
der similar  circumstances  to  test  my  physical  eye- 
sight, by  the  standard  of  the  general  verdict  of 
humanity.  What  have  Christians  in  general 
taught,  therefore,  about  the  matter  of  prevenient 
grace  ? 

There  are  many  ways  of  arriving  at  such  gen- 
eral testimony  of  Christians  as  to  their  experi- 


The  New  Birth  6g 

ence ;  but  one  of  them  is  specially  suggestive  and 
valuable  for  the  topic  which  is  now  before  us.  It 
is  that  derived  from  the  historic  creeds.  It  has 
the  advantage  among  methods  of  eliciting  the 
voice  of  general  experience  that  it  cannot  be 
charged  with"  unduly  exalting  emotional  and  pos- 
sibly momentary  utterances  to  an  undeserved 
rank  as  exponents  of  permanent  experiential  con- 
viction. Creeds  have  been  formed  deliberately, 
and  when  not  drafted,  as  has  generally  been  the 
case,  by  some  representative  body,  they  have 
maintained  themselves  only  because  they  gained 
the  common  consent  of  the  church  which  received 
them,  and  so  have  universally  spoken  for  more 
than  their  individual  authors. 

Now,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  voice  of 
all  the  great  creeds,  Roman,  Greek,  and  Protest- 
ant, is  for  the  doctrine  of  prevenient  grace. 
Nearly  all  of  them  teach  it  with  great  clearness, 
only  the  Greek  creeds,  which  ground  predestina- 
tion on  the  foreknowledge  of  the  faith  of  the  pre- 
destinate, being  indistinct.^  We  read,  however, 
in  the  "  Confession  of  Dositheus  "  of  a  "  preven- 
ient grace  "  bestowed  "  like  light  in  darkness  " 

*  Thus  the  "  Orthodox  Confession "  of  Mogilas  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  do  more  than  leave  a  place  for  pre- 
venient grace,  quest,  xxvii.,  end  (Schaff,  Creeds  of 
Christendom,  vol.  XL,  p.  308)  ;  but  the  "  Longer  Cate- 
chism "  speaks,  somewhat  ambiguously,  of  "  preparatory 
grace",  quest.  123  (Schaff,  ibid.,  p.  465),  and  refers 
"  spiritual  life  "  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  quest.  240  (Schaff, 
p.  481). 


70  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

upon  all,  which  some  "  obey  "  and  are  saved.'  In- 
deed, most  of  the  creeds  teach  the  doctrine  of 
election,  which  is  the  consistent  formulation  sub 
specie  eternitatis  of  prevenient  grace.  Thus,  of 
course,  the  Calvinistic  creeds,  such  as  the  Eng- 
lish (the  Anglican  Articles,  the  Irish  , Articles, 
and  the  Westminster  Confession),  the  Scotch, 
French,  and  Dort  creeds,  teach  it  plainly  with  re- 
markable agreement  of  phraseology;  but,  it  de- 
serves especial  notice,  the  anti-Calvinistic  creeds 
have  either  affirmed  election  (as  the  Formula  of 
Concord)  or  have  contented  themselves  with 
omitting  it  (as  the  Articles  of  Wesley)."  In  no 
case,  either  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation  or 
more  recently,  has  any  creed  belonging  to  an  ec- 
clesiastical body  which  could  be  properly  called 
evangelical,  positively  denied  even  election,  much 
less  prevenient  grace.  Further  than  this,  the 
creeds  that  have  omitted  the  doctrine  of  election 
have  all  explicitly  declared  the  doctrine  of  pre- 
venient grace  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is  derived 
from  experience,  that  the  initiative  in  conversion 
is  given  by  the  gracious  activity  of  God.  The 
symbolical  expression  of  Christian  experience  is 

*See  Schaff,  op.  cit.,  p.  404. 

•Thus  the  Arminian  Articles  (1610)  and  the  Society 
of  Friends  (1675)  ;  while,  of  modern  creeds,  the  follow- 
ing affirm  it, — Auburn  Declaration ;  Evang.  Free  Church 
of  Geneva;  Free  Church  of  Italy;  Moravian  Easter  Lit- 
any; Cong'l  Union  of  England  and  Wales;  Cong'l 
Creed  of  1883,  U.  S. ;  Reformed  Episcopalian. 


The  New  Birth  71 

thus' but  one,  that  the  originating  cause  of  re- 
generation is  God. 

Our  analysis  of  our  experience  which  has 
seemed  so  clear  and  certain  to  us  as  we  have 
traced  it,  is  1  therefore  not  merely  subjective  and 
.  exposed  to  the  error  which  an  abnormal  subjec- 
tivity may  introduce.  We  have  brought  our 
vision  to  the  test  of  the  universal  vision  and  have 
•found  it  correct.  So  clear,  so  universal,  so  un- 
mistakable have  been  the  features  of  the  simplest 
Christian  experience  at  this  point  that  Chris- 
tendom has  united  in  the  substantial  acceptance 
of  that  favorite  aphorism  of  Augustine's  "  Every 
good  thing  is  either  God  or  from  God." 

We  have  thus  our  complete  answer  to  the  ob- 
jections of  that  philosophy  which,  ascribing  the 
new  birth  itself  to  the  gradual  operations  upon 
the  developing  mind  of  the  evolutionary  process, 
would  go  on  thence  and  rob  us  of  every  religious 
doctrine  and  finally  of  all  ultimate  truth.  There 
remain  still  rejoinders  from  that  quarter  which 
demand  the  attention  of  the  Christian  apologist. 
The  outcome  of  that  philosophy  is  materialism  as 
to  nature  and  man,  and  at  best  agnosticism  as  to 
God.  But  the  contest  has  been  now  so  well  fought 
out  in  the  arena  of  public  discussion  that  we  shall 
be  justified  in  omitting  any  repetition  of  the 
Christian  arguments  here.  Enough  to  remark 
that  several  of  the  most  prominent  advocates  of 
Mr.  Darwin's  theories  have  come  clearly  to  see, 


72  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

with  Prof.  Romanes,  that  causes  in  nature  do  not 
evacuate  the  necessity  of  a  cause  of  nature. 
Among  the  latest  of  these  clearly  to  express  him- 
self may  be  mentioned  Mr.  John  Fiske.  The 
course  of  evolution  itself  demands  a  superintend- 
ing Intelligence,  working  "  immanently,"  as  Prof. 
Le  Conte  phrases  it,  but  not  less  really  and  intel- 
ligently for  that.  The  cause  of  the  world  is  a 
Person,  when  the  last  word  of  evolution  has  been 
spoken. 

But  we  are  still  upon  disputed  ground,  and 
need  to  protect  ourselves  against  criticism  from 
another  quarter,  if  we  wish  to  make  our  progress 
perfectly  secure.  Professor  Kaftan,  as  was 
earlier  remarked,  is  himself  in  a  sense  a  theolo- 
gian of  experience;  but  he  has  repudiated  the 
stand-point  which  he  occupied  in  his  earlier 
theological  career,  and  sharply  criticizes  those 
who,  like  Frank,  derive  the  dogmatic  system  of 
the  church  from  religious  experience.  He  would 
have  many  an  objection  to  urge  to  the  line  of  rea- 
soning which  we  have  now  pursued.  I  deem  it 
important  to  devote  special  attention  to  him  not 
merely  because  he  is  one  of  the  foremost  of  liv- 
ing theologians,  and  the  leader  of  that  general 
tendency  of  thought  which  goes  by  the  name 
of  Ritschlianism,  but  even  more  because  his  ob- 
jections may  seem  to  be  suggested  by  his  superior 
opportunities  of  judging  of  the  real  value  of  the 
experiential  argument.  His  personal  devout- 
ness  and  the  great  theological  advance  made  by 


The  New  Birth  73 

him  upon  Ritschl  add  to  the  reasons  for  special 
attention  to  whatever  he  may  have  to  say. 

The  proof  already  delineated  conforms  entirely 
in  one  general  aspect  to  the  most  important  un- 
derlying principles  of  Kaftan.  He  lays  great  and 
due  weight  on  the  fact  that  the  divine  revela- 
tion is  not,  in  the  first  instance,  a  revelation  of 
truths,  but  the  revelation  of  a  person,  the  mani- 
festation of  God  himself  to  man.  Upon  this,  he 
says,  must  follow  credence  on  the  part  of  man, 
and  then  obedience  by  which  man  yields  himself 
to  the  self-revealing  God.  In  this  conscious  in- 
tercourse of  obedience  between  God  and  man 
there  springs  up  a  knowledge  of  divine  things, 
first  among  which  is  the  knowledge  of  God  him- 
self. And  Christian  doctrine,  says  Kaftan,  is  at 
bottom  the  doctrine  of  God. 

Now,  that  is  precisely  the  method  of  gaining 
the  idea  of  God  adopted  in  the  analysis  of  Chris- 
tian experience  which  we  have  just  completed. 
In  the  new  birth  the  soul  comes  in  contact  with 
God  who  reveals  himself  to  it  in  the  regenerat- 
ing act.  The  soul  responding  is  brought  by 
"  obedience  to  the  heavenly  vision  "  into  a  new 
relation  with  God,  and  meditating  on  that  rela- 
tion, it  comes  to  find  by  simple  analysis  that  God 
is  manifested  there,  and  what  he  is  manifested  to 
be;  and  thus  it  comes  to  believe  in  him  as  the 
holy.  Infinite,  and  loving  Person,  a  God  who  is 
truly  a  Father. 

But  Kaftan  would  not  pause  in  his  criticism  at 


74  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

this  point.  He  would  detect  a  grave  error 
heralded  by  the  entire  structure  of  our  argument 
in  its  evident  attempt  to  gain  a  definite  and  for- 
mulated knowledge  of  God  by  methods  of  the 
understanding.  His  objection  goes  very  deep 
into  the  underlying  problems  of  theology,  and  its 
due  consideration  will  lead  us  far  afield.  But 
we  shall  be  rewarded,  when  we  have  returned  to 
the  main  course  of  our  discussion  again,  by  the 
•conviction  that  little  is  likely  to  be  brought 
against  us  at  any  later  point  more  far-reaching  or 
thorough-going  in  its  antagonism  to  our  princi- 
ples. 

The  objection  may  be  reduced  to  two  brief 
expressions : 

I.  We  do  not  really  want  the  knowledge  we 
seek. 

What,  asks  Kaftan,  is  the  highest  good?  Is 
it  knowledge  ?  So  many  have  thought,  especially 
the  Greeks,  whose  philosophy  culminated  in 
Plato,  and  exercised  a  powerful  influence  upon 
the  early  church.  It  so  modified  the  course  of 
Christian  thinking  that  the  final  outcome  was 
that  tendency  which  has  reached  its  full  develop- 
ment in  Roman  Catholicism,  to  exalt  knowledge 
into  the  place  of  an  essential  element  of  salvation, 
— a  good  in  itself.  It  was  thus  severed  from 
right  conduct,  and  religion  was  made  to  consist 
in  the  acceptance  of  dogmas  and  the  performance 
of  ceremonies  which  had  no  connection  with  the 
plain  doing  of  our  duty  in  the  ordinary  relations 


The  New  Birth  75 

of  life.  A  chasm  was  thus  opened  between  re- 
Hgion  and  morahty,  between  the  religion,  that  is, 
of  this  erring  church  and  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  which  consisted  in  the  exercises  of  the 
heart  and  the  consequent  performance  of  the 
life,  in  loving  God  supremely  and  our  neighbor 
as  ourselves.  The  longer  this  Greek  conception 
of  the  highest  good  is  studied,  says  Kaftan,  the 
more  it  will  be  clear  that  it  is  erroneous  and 
harmful  to  every  department  of  thought  and  life. 
What,  then,  is  in  truth  the  highest  good  for 
which  men  should  seek?  The  history  of  the 
world  is  the  history  of  struggle  after  the  satis- 
faction of  wants.  Man  has  his  desires,  chief 
among  which  is  that  for  fulness  of  life,  the  com- 
plete and  perfect  satisfaction  of  all  his  natural 
wants  and  the  exercise  of  all  his  powers.  The 
supreme  good  he  seeks  can  be  nothing  less  than 
this,  for  nothing  else  can  give  unity  and  consist- 
ency to  history.  **  But  there  is  nothing  in  the 
world  which  can  afford  this  satisfaction.  Every- 
thing here  is  relative  and  conditioned.  This  is  true 
both  of  our  knowledge  and  of  everything  in 
which  we  seek  the  satisfaction  of  our  vital  needs. 
True,  we  commonly  think  that  some  day  the  dis- 
illusionment which  dogs  us  will  come  to  an 
end."  ^  But  none,  great  or  small,  find  themselves 
satisfied,  or  can.    Now,  two  alternatives  are  thus 

*  I  quote  in  this  whole  context,  sometimes  accurately 
and  oftener  loosely,  from  Kaftan's  "  WaHrheit  der 
christlichen  Religion  " ,  p.  509  ff . 


76  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

presented  to  man.  On  the  one  hand,  he  can  de- 
spair of  the  world  and  embrace  the  philosophy 
of  pessimism;  but  that  is  no  solution  of  the  dif- 
ficulties of  history,  since  it  in  fact  declares  that 
they  are  insoluble.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  he  can 
reach  out  towards  another  world  in  which  the 
good  which  cannot  be  attained  in  this  world  may 
be  sought. 

But  what  shall  this  supermundane,  highest 
good  be?  The  need  of  it  is  developed  in  the  his- 
tory of  man,  and  it  must  hence  be  such  that 
human  history  shall  be  the  positive  means  of 
bringing  it  into  existence.  Hence  it  can  be  only  a 
moral  good,  a  product  to  be  gained  by  means  of 
the  real  secret  of  human  progress,  by  the  dis- 
tinctive element  of  human  history,  by  the  moral 
development  which  is  the  main  achievement  of 
the  course  of  human  affairs.  Historical  develop- 
ment creates  conscience;  and  hence  conscience 
must  have  part  in  this  highest  good.  Conscience 
demands  general  love  of  men  by  which  they  are 
knit  together  in  a  society  regulated  by  love  as  its 
law.  The  good  of  the  individual  must  be  stead- 
ily subordinated  to  the  good  of  the  whole.  But 
such  a  society  is  not  to  be  found  in  this  world. 
And  hence  the  religious  element  must  be  added 
to  the  other  elements  constituting  the  highest 
good,  for  we  must  believe  in  the  existence  some- 
where of  that  which  we  cannot  find  upon  earth. 
The  highest  good   is   thus   both   religious   and 


The  New  Birth  77 

ethical.  And  these  elements  are  united  in  the 
Christian  conception  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

This  is  a  highly  subjective  process  of  construc- 
tion, as  we  shall  at  once  remark,  and  Kaftan  him- 
self candidly  admits.  Is  it  anything  more  than 
this?  Can  it  give  any  proof  of  being  objective 
also?  Yes,  says  Kaftan,  for  it  is  the  result  at 
which  the  human  race  as  a  whole,  and  in  the 
actual  outcome  of  its  development,  has  arrived. 
It  is  the  universal  human  idea  of  the  highest 
good,  for  history  shows  there  can  be  no  society 
and  no  high  civilization,  no  culture,  no  progress, 
where  men  do  not  steadily  subordinate  the  in- 
dividual to  the  general  good. 

And  yet  it  may  be,  for  all  that,  a  mere  ideal. 
What  proof  has  it  of  reality?  And  how  can  we 
say  that  there  is  a  kingdom  of  God,  a  society  be- 
yond this  present  world,  in  which  God,  from  whom 
the  world  came  forth,  has  placed  the  culmination 
of  the  world's  history,  and  where  the  law  of  love 
perfectly  prevails?  Kaftan's  answer  is  that  such 
a  kingdom  must  exist  if  history  is  to  be  rational, 
and  it  is  therefore  "  postulated."  But  this  postu- 
late involves  another ;  for  if  there  be  a  God  and  a 
divine  moral  order,  then  that  fact  must  be  made 
known  by  a  divine  act  of  self-revelation,  or  a 
revelation  is  to  be  postulated.  And  thus  are  given 
to  us  what  he  calls  the  elements  of  the  "  highest 
knowledge,"  God  as  the  cause  of  the  world  and 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  its  goal.    It  is  a  "  knowl- 


78  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

edge  "  (Erkennen)  obtained  by  an  act  of  faith. 
No  man  can  be  compelled  to  believe  it.  But  be- 
lieving it,  every  man  finds  it  rational.  There- 
fore, says  Kaftan,  we  do  not  want  the  knowledge 
(Wissen)  at  which  the  present  lectures  are  evi- 
dently aiming,  built  up  by  the  careful  use  of  the 
categories  of  the  understanding. 

With  much  of  this  reasoning  we  are  immedi- 
ately at  one.  It  is  a  great  and  most  significant 
fact  which  Kaftan  elaborates,  that  the  moral  de- 
velopment is  the  heart  of  the  historical  develop- 
ment of  humanity,  and  that  the  conscience  is  the 
highest  element  of  the  moral  development.  Take 
ethics, — nay,  take  Christianity,  out  of  the  tower- 
ing growth  of  European  civilization,  and  Hke  an 
oak  whose  heart  has  been  burned  out  by  light- 
ning, it  rots  and  falls.  But  we  need  something 
more  than  a  mere  postulate  of  the  reality  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  which  is  included  the  reality 
of  God  himself.  We  are  to  commit  ourselves  to 
God,  to  sacrifice  for  him,  "  to  venture  all ",  as 
Kaftan  elsewhere  expresses  it,  "  our  life  and  our 
dearest  possessions ",  on  his  existence  and  his 
fatherly  providence;  and  there  must  be  knowl- 
edge before  there  is  such  a  committal  of  the  man 
by  the  act  of  his  will.  The  will  moves  in  view  of 
motives,  and  these  approach  it  by  the  avenues  of 
the  emotions  and  the  intellect.  If  God  is  not 
known  as  an  object  of  trust,  trust  cannot  be  ex- 
ercised in  him. 

Kaftan  more  than  half  acknowledges  this  when 


The  New  Birth  79 

he  proceeds  to  postulate  revelation.  God  must 
make  himself  known;  and  this  revelation  must 
be  believed  to  be  in  history,  or  else  it  is  all  unin- 
telligible. So  says  Kaftan.  Rather,  say  we, 
this  revelation  must  be  received,  and  the  self- 
revealing  object  be  known  through  the  experi- 
ence. It  will  never  satisfy  the  world  to  tell  them 
that  here  is  a  truth  which,  if  one  sees  it  so,  is  so, 
but  which  one  may  refuse  to  see  and  which,  so  far 
as  he  is  concerned,  will  then  not  be!  And  it 
will  never  satisfy  the  Christian  to  tell  him  that 
his  certainty  is  a  certainty  of  mere  belief.  He 
needs,  and,  as  I  think  we  have  abundantly  shown, 
he  possesses,  a  knowledge  which  is  a  ground  of 
faith  as  well  as  the  offspring  of  faith,  and  not 
merely  a  simple  faith.  He  need  not  strive  to 
content  himself  with  a  "  knowledge "  (Erken- 
nen)  which  is  no  knowledge  (Wissen). 

But,  says  Kaftan — and  this  is  his  other  point — 
2.  However  much  we  may  want  such  knowl- 
edge (Wissen),  we  cannot  have  it. 

Your  reasoning  in  the  above  derivation  of  the 
existence  of  God  from  the  experiences  involved 
in  the  new  birth,  he  says,  is  not  a  mere  analysis 
of  the  facts  and  a  consequent  recognition  of  the 
self-revelation  of  God  in  those  experiences,  but 
it  is  an  argument  conducted  on  a  false  basis, 
for  you  are  arguing  from  effect  to  cause  and 
are  thus  employing  the  principle  of  causality  be- 
yond the  sphere  of  its  legitimate  application.  It 
is  restricted  by  its  nature  to  the  sphere  of  ex- 


8o  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

perience,  and  can  never  prove  the  existence  of  a 
cause  beyond  experience  for  the  phenomena 
within  experience. 

This  sounds  quite  like  Kant,  and  we  begin  to 
summon  from  their  hiding  places  those  old  argu- 
ments by  which  sound  philosophy  long  ago  dis- 
posed of  Kant's  limitation  of  causality  to  phe- 
nomena,— a  limitation  which  he  could  not  him- 
self consistently  maintain.  But  Kaftan  is  not 
building  exactly  upon  Kant's  foundations.  He 
derives  far  more  from  a  philosopher  whom,  in 
the  town  where  James  McCosh  lived  and  taught, 
I  may  claim  without  fear  of  contradiction,  Eng- 
lish philosophy  has  long  since  refuted, — I  mean 
John  Stuart  Mill.  Causation,  says  Kaftan,  is  an 
idea  which  we  arbitrarily  impose  upon  phenom- 
ena for  our  own  convenience  in  gaining  domina- 
tion over  the  world.  All  that  we  perceive  is 
succession  in  events.  We  wish  to  know  what 
successions  we  can  depend  upon  in  order  that 
we  may  subject  nature  to  our  control  for  our 
own  selfish  purposes.  We  are  conscious  of 
causality  in  the  spiritual  sphere  of  our  own  inner 
life,  and  we  project  this  arbitrarily  upon  phe- 
nomena, and  say  that  so  and  so  is  the  cause  of 
so  and  so,  that  we  may  the  more  distinctly  mark 
the  reliable  certainty  with  which  one  phenome- 
non succeeds  another.  Further  than  that  there 
is  no  causality  in  the  world;  and  to  think  that 
we  are  actually  gaining  a  real  knowledge  of  the 
world  by  the  application  to  it  of  this  principle, 


The  New  Birth  8i 

is  a  great  error.  Atoms,  and  evolutionary  hy- 
potheses, and  the  much  vaunted  "  laws  of  na- 
ture "  are  likewise  mere  matters  of  our  own  con- 
venience, arbitrarily  attributed  to  things,  and 
have  no  reality  in  themselves  and  no  value  beyond 
their  use  in  enabling  man  to  dominate  nature 
and  employ  it  for  his  own  purposes. 

We  shall  all  have  two  things  to  say  in  reply, 
I  think.  First,  this  is  a  very  low  and  false  view 
of  the  object  of  natural  science.  Doubtless  it 
has  its  practical  bearings,  and  to  a  large  extent  is 
intended  to  promote  man's  dominion  over  nature ; 
but  it  has  also  higher  objects,  principal  among 
which  is  the  knowledge  of  truth.  Kaftan  be- 
lieves in  God  as  the  cause  of  the  world.  Is  it 
conceivable  that  he  should  be  this,  and  not  have 
left  imprinted  upon  every  page  of  the  world  and 
ready  for  the  reading  of  qualified  minds,  the 
record  of  his  methods,  which  will  also  be  the  rec- 
ord of  his  own  nature  ?  Certainly,  men  are  study- 
ing nature  in  order  to  "think  God's  thoughts  after 
him  ",  as  Kepler  said ;  and  they  have  thought  that 
from  that  despised  theory  of  evolution  which 
Kaftan  dismisses  almost  with  a  sneer,  they 
gained  new  views  of  the  grandeur,  perfection, 
and  wide-spreading  efficiency  of  the  divine  plan. 
I  think  we  may  increasingly  say  that,  if  the  "  un- 
devout  astronomer  is  mad  ",  the  undevout  biolo- 
gist, who  is  permitted  to  linger  in  the  very 
sanctuaries  where  life  is  evolving  and  to  watch 
it  with  the  microscope,  that  eye  which  modern 


82  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

science  has  given  him  and  which  beholds  the 
very  ultimates  of  Hfe,  the  cells, — who  may  thus 
almost  see  the  hand  of  God  at  work  as  he  fash- 
ions life, — ^the  undevout  biologist  must  be  in- 
capable of  reverence.  No!  the  highest  service 
of  science  is  that  it  gives  us,  not  dominion  over 
the  world,  but  insight  into  it,  and  insight  into 
the  processes  of  eternity  and  the  ways  of  God, — 
in  a  word,  knowledge,  which  Kaftan  says  we 
cannot  gain. 

Kaftan  seems  to  see  this,  for  he  has  one  pas- 
sage in  which  he  tries  to  lift  this  low  conception 
of  science  upon  a  higher  level.  ''  This  practical 
aim  of  science  is  before  all  things  spiritual  domin- 
ion over  the  world,  which  we  must  in  some  de- 
gree possess  in  order  to  become  and  to  be  spirit- 
ual persons.  It  is  the  position  of  the  race  of  man 
in  the  universe  which  enables  it  to  lift  itself 
above  the  world  and  to  direct  its  gaze  upon  an 
eternal  goal.  There  is  therefore  not  the  slight- 
est depreciation  of  science  or  derogation  from 
its  dignity  when  it  is  viewed  as  a  means  to  this 
end."  ^  Yes,  if  science  helps  us  thus,  it  teaches 
us  of  God.  But  can  it,  under  Kaftan's  ideas  of  its 
methods?  Can  it,  if  the  great  principle  of  caus- 
ality is  nothing  but  a  fiction,  a  short  way  of  ex- 
pressing to  ourselves  that  we  expect  a  certain 
thing  to-morrow  when  a  given  antecedent  shall 
be  put  in  motion,  because  it  followed  the  same 
to-day,   an   "  arbitrary "   application  of  idea  to 

^*'Wahrheit",  p.  325. 


The  New  Birth  83 

phenomena,  introducing  an  "  illusion  "  ( Tdusch- 
ung),  a  "naive"  transfer  of  facts  of  our  own 
nature  to  the  external  world,  making  that  world 
"  a  complicated  web  of  artificial  causes  and  ef- 
fects "  ?  ^  In  truth.  Kaftan's  idea  of  natural  sci- 
ence remains  a  low  one  and  altogether  unworthy 
of  the  great  structure  of  human  knowledge  which 
has  been  erected  by  its  skilful  labors. 

Second,  we  say  that  Kaftan's  idea  of  causation 
is  not  the  one  with  which  natural  science  operates. 
The  youngest  and  most  "  naive  "  student  ascribes 
to  causality  the  idea  of  power;  and  the  ultimate 
results  of  scientific  study  lay  emphasis  on  force 
as  operative  in  phenomena.  It  is  by  the  study  of 
forces,  in  fact,  that  science  has  come  to  its  great- 
est generalizations  and  its  greatest  contributions 
to  human  thought. 

But  this  subject  has  been  thoroughly  discussed 
among  English-speaking  philosophers  and  theo- 
logians in  connection  with  the  writings  of  that 
eminent  man,  who  has  become  among  us,  in  spite 
of  his  real  eminence  and  genuine  services  to 
thought,  metaphysically  considered,  a  rejected 
and  now  almost  forgotten  leader.  Prof.  Kaftan 
cannot  expect  us  to  take  very  seriously  his  at- 
tempt at  this  late  date  to  revive  the  authority 
of  J.  S.  Mill.  We  put  it  down  as  the  self-evident 
basis  of  Kaftan's  labors  as  well  as  of  our  own, 
that  man  is  made  for  knowledge;  that  the  fun- 
damental principles  which  he  must  employ  in  the 

» Ibid.,  p.  333. 


84  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

search  for  knowledge  are  necessary  to  him  be- 
cause they  have  their  counterpart  in  the  reality 
which  he  is  to  know;  and  that  hence  the  marks 
of  necessity  and  universality  that  are  upon  them 
are  evidences  of  their  applicabihty  to  the  entire 
world  of  possible  thought.  Even  Kaftan  carries 
causality  beyond  the  world  of  experience,  for  he 
"  postulates  "  a  Cause  of  the  eternal  kingdom  of 
good  beyond  this  world ;  and  what  is  that  "  postu- 
lating "  but  the  utterance  of  the  fact  that  such  a 
kingdom,  and  any  rational  outcome  of  the  his- 
tory of  a  finite  and  dependent  being  like  man, 
demands  a  Power  to  establish  and  conduct  it? 
Even  Kant  had  a  "'  Ding-an-sich  "  which  was  the 
cause  of  phenomenal  reality. 

But  we  are  in  danger,  as  I  hinted,  of  being  led 
too  far  afield.  I  shall  therefore  pass  over  the 
other  features  of  this  strange  theory  of  knowl- 
edge upon  which  Kaftan  has  seen  fit  to  base 
his  employment  of  the  Scriptures  as  the  sole 
source  of  Christian  theology,  to  the  intended  and 
emphatic  exclusion  of  experience.  I  can  only 
mention  the  remarkable  turn  which  he  gives  to 
the  reply  to  his  adversaries  on  innate  principles  of 
knowledge.  He  conceives  them  as  citing  Mathe- 
matics against  him  as  a  wholly  a  priori  and  yet 
absolutely  certain  science.  His  answer  at  least 
does  not  lack  boldness.  "  The  propositions  of 
Mathematics  ",  he  says,  "  are  truths  only  in  an 
hypothetical  manner,  that  is,  under  the  supposi- 
tion that  there  are  things  to  which  they  can  be 


The  New  Birth  85 

applied " !  ^  And  he  follows  Mill  in  the  ab- 
surd statement  that  the  ideal  forms  of  geometry 
are  derived  from  the  approximate  circles,  etc., 
of  nature  by  exaggeration  of  certain  qualities! 
Why  did  he  not  complete  the  catalogue  of  Mill's 
absurdities  here  by  approving  his  supposition 
that  upon  the  planet  Jupiter,  for  example,  parallel 
lines  prolonged  would  meet,  and  two  and  two 
make  five?  I  therefore  abruptly  break  off  the  dis- 
cussion at  this  point.  We  shall  return  to  Kaf- 
tan's positions  at  a  later  time,  and  review  in 
another  connection  certain  ob lections  which  he 
might  urge  against  the  use  of  creeds  and  of 
history  in  general  both  in  this  and  in  the  follow- 
ing lecture. 

We  have  thus  completed  our  survey  of  the  first 
cycle  of  truths  falling  under  our  theme,  viz.,  those 
resulting  from  the  fact  of  the  new  birth  as  experi- 
enced by  the  individual  Christian.  We  are  now 
to  pass  to  other  elements  of  his  experience,  less 
central  to  it  and  often  yielding  a  certainty  of  an 
inferior  degree.  But  before  we  go  we  should 
pause  to  remark  that  the  elements  of  doctrine  al- 
ready secured  carry  with  them  the  entire  system 
of  doctrine  commonly  called  evangelical  by  their 
logical  implications  and  by  the  necessities  of  any 
thinking  which  proceeds  upon  the  supposition  of 
the  unity  of  all  truth  and  of  its  consistency  both 
with  itself  and  with  the  laws  of  thought.  It  will 
be  the  office  of  all  the  following  discussion  to  sub- 

^"Wahrheit",p.  369. 


86  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

stantiate  this  remark,  and  it  will  therefore  be  un- 
advisable  to  attempt  to  display  now  the  necessary 
connection  of  the  doctrines  of  the  sin  and  ruin 
of  the  world,  of  the  preveniency  of  grace  and  jus- 
tification by  faith,  with  the  other  doctrines  of  the 
system.  But  this  observation  should  be  made; 
that  no  historical  communion  has  held  these  doc- 
trines without  holding  the  rest,  and  none  has 
denied  the  others  and  succeeded  in  maintaining 
these.  Indeed,  the  circle  might  be  contracted 
upon  its  center,  and  it  might  be  said  that  with  the 
maintenance  of  the  doctrine  of  prevenient  grace 
the  evangelical  system  stands  or  falls.  It  was 
not  without  an  inner  logical  necessity  that  Rome, 
departing  from  the  evangelical  system  at  other 
points,  pelagianized  at  this.  And  at  the  other 
extreme,  those  communions  which  have  rejected 
the  Trinity  and  the  eternity  of  the  judgment 
awards  have  felt  no  sympathy  with  the  Augus- 
tinian  theology  that  all  good  comes  from  God. 

We  have  thus  already  gained  the  central  point 
of  our  study  and  laid  bare  the  central  and  deter- 
minative elements  of  that  Christian  system  which 
is  to  develop  from  it.  What  we  shall  hereafter 
do,  will,  therefore,  have  the  double  character  of 
an  enlargement  and  a  confirmation  of  what  has 
gone  before. 


LECTURE  III 

SOURCES   OF    CHRISTIAN    EXPERIENCE   OUTSIDE   OF 
THE   INDIVIDUAL    CHRISTIAN 

I  FEAR  that  I  must  to-day  make  an  especial  de- 
mand upon  the  patience  and  the  powers  of  my 
audience.  Having  analyzed  Christian  experience 
and  found  there  the  great  fundamental  doctrines 
of  the  divine  existence  and  the  divine  agency  in 
the  renewal  of  men,  you  will  be  anxious,  if  the 
discussion  has  already  gained  that  hold  upon  your 
interest  which  its  intrinsic  importance  deserves, 
to  press  on  to  a  further  examination  of  the  posi- 
tive doctrinal  contributions  of  experience.  But 
we  shall  be  compelled  to  turn  aside  from  the  di- 
rect development  of  our  theme  for  the  considera- 
tion of  formal  matters,  of  questions  of  source  and 
value,  and  for  enquiry  and  criticism.  We  shall 
not  thereby  depart  from  the  object  which  we  have 
set  before  us.  This  was  methodological  as  well 
as  constructive,  to  determine,  first,  that  Christian 
experience  could  contribute  to  doctrine,  and  how 
its  voice  was  to  be  arrived  at,  and  only  then  to 
ask  what  it  had  thus  actually  contributed.  We 
may  therefore  be  content  to  gird  up  our  minds  to 
a  strenuous  effort  at  this  time,  knowing  that  if 
our  path  seems  to  lie  in  less  pleasant  regions,  it  is 
87 


88  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

yet  leading  us  forward,  and  that  our  labor  is  es- 
sential to  secure  the  soundness  of  our  processes 
and  results.  And,  I  may  add,  to  keep  our  faint- 
ing spirits  in  courage  by  the  way,  that  even  these 
less  attractive  moments  will  serve  to  add  a  new 
and  very  important  contribution  to  the  system  of 
truth  from  experience  which  could  be  attained  by 
no  shorter  method. 

Christian  experience,  as  we  have  been  consid- 
ering it  up  to  the  present  point,  has  been  princi- 
pally a  matter  of  the  individual  consciousness. 
We  have  consulted  it  by  the  simple  process  of  in- 
trospection, each  for  himself.  On  one  occasion, 
however,  we  were  led  to  recognize  the  possibility 
of  subjective  error  as  to  what  might  be  genuine 
Christian  experience  at  any  point,  and  we  made 
our  appeal  to  the  general  experience  of  Christians 
by  an  examination  of  the  expressions  of  the  great 
creeds  upon  the  topic  in  hand,  which  was  pre- 
venient  grace.  We  justified  our  course  then  with 
the  simple  remark  that  the  creeds,  as  products  of 
common  action  or  as  securing  general  assent  in 
some  important  communion,  might  well  serve  to 
indicate  the  crystallization  of  sentiment  among  a 
considerable  number  of  Christians  as  to  the  points 
they  cover.  We  are  now  to  pass  out  of  the  sphere 
of  the  immediate  consciousness  of  the  Christian 
into  the  less  restricted  sphere  of  his  larger  life, 
and  the  word  experience  is  now  to  take  on  the 
wider  signification  of  the  entire  verification  of 


Christian  Experience  89 

Christian  truth  in  all  the  complex  tests  which  life 
applies  to  it.  The  more  remote  experience  thus 
becomes  from  our  own  immediate  consciousness, 
the  less  direct  are  our  means  of  determining  what 
it  is  and  the  greater  the  difficulty  in  giving  it  a 
sufficient  and  accurate  examination.  And,  if  the 
danger  of  subjective  error  grows  less  in  one  re- 
spect as  we  leave  our  own  personality  in  the  back- 
ground, it  becomes  greater  in  another  as  we  come 
into  the  region  where  the  fancies  and  fallacies 
of  other  minds  may  exert  an  undue  influence  over 
us.  We  begin  the  critical  study  thus  thrust  upon 
us,  of  the  sources  of  information  as  to  experience 
and  the  canons  by  which  we  are  to  decide  what  its 
true  deliverances  are,  with  a  recurrence  to  the 
historical  origin  of  the  Christian  religion. 

The  first,  and  incomparably  the  most  important 
experience  of  Christian  truth  which  was  ever  had 
was  that  which  was  enjoyed  by  the  twelve  disci- 
ples who  gathered  about  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  among  all  the  influences  exerted  by  his  im- 
mediate presence,  and,  when  that  had  been  with- 
drawn, under  the  promised  guidance  of  the  Spirit 
of  Truth,  incorporated  in  their  spiritual  natures 
the  teachings  they  had  received  from  the  Son  of 
God.  Not  less  remarkable  and  scarcely  less  im- 
portant was  the  experience  of  that  other  apostle 
who,  as  "  one  born  out  of  due  time  ",  received 
his  gospel  "  not  from  man,  nor  through  man,  but 
through  Jesus  Christ ".  The  experience  of  this 
group  of  first  possessors  and  witnesses  to  Chris- 


90  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

tian  truth  has  been  handed  down  to  us  in  their 
own  and  other  writings,  embodied  for  us  in  the 
New  Testament.  The  first,  and  ever  the  su- 
preme source  of  Christian  experience  outside  of 
the  individual  consciousness  will  therefore  be  the 
New  Testament,  or,  since  the  New  is  not  fully  in- 
telligible without  the  Old,  and  since  some  ele- 
ments of  Christian  experience  are  elements  of 
a  more  general  experience,  and  actually  antedate 
the  coming  of  our  Lord  in  the  history  of  God's 
people,  we  may  say,  more  fully,  the  Bible. 

We  thus  first  come  in  contact  with  the  Bible  in 
this  study  as  a  record  of  the  earliest  Christian 
experience.  As  such,  it  is  at  once  to  be  received 
as  in  a  large  degree  normative  in  discussions  of 
Christianity  according  to  the  historical  canon  first 
emphasized  in  recent  times  by  Ritschl,  that  in  an 
historical  movement  its  purest  form  will  be  found 
represented  in  the  documents  in  which  it  was  set 
forth  at  the  beginning. 

I  know  that  this  canon  will  be  immediately  dis- 
puted by  the  advocates  of  a  merely  evolutionary 
philosophy.  They  will  say  that  the  truest  form 
of  any  historical  movement  lies  at  the  end,  not  at 
the  beginning.  The  beginning  is  often  small, 
poor,  little  indicative  of  what  is  to  come;  while 
the  end,  the  finished  product,  embodies  most  per- 
fectly the  real  forces  at  work  from  the  first,  but 
incapable  of  revealing  themselves  fully  in  their 
first  undifferentiated  exercise.  That  may  be 
true  of  a  merely  natural  process ;  but  we  have  al- 


\  ^  n  A  R  y 

"UNIVERSITY 

Christian  Experience  91 

ready  shown  that  Christianity  is  not  a  purely  nat- 
ural process.  It  begins  in  any  individual  soul 
with  the  touch  of  God.  In  history  at  large  it 
must  have  begun  thus,  for  all  Christians  are  made 
such  in  the  same  way,  and  only  as  there  were  a 
number  of  Christians,  of  exceptionally  vigorous 
experience,  produced  together,  could  Christianity 
have  begun  its  historic  course.  Something  like 
a  day  of  Pentecost  is  demanded  as  the  beginning 
of  any  such  thing  as  Christianity  has  proved  it- 
self to  be.  The  supernatural  origin  of  Christian- 
ity, therefore,  justifies  the  canon  in  this  case.  Its 
original  form  will  be  pure.  In  this  sense,  though 
with  deeper  justification  than  Ritschl  gave,  do  we 
accept  his  canon. 

The  Bible,  then,  is  an  original  and  very  import- 
ant witness  to  Christian  experience.  Simply  on 
this  ground,  if  on  no  other,  its  words  are  to  be 
treated  by  us  with  the  greatest  respect.  But,  as 
soon  as  we  begin  to  consider  it  more  closely,  we 
find  its  utterances  varied  in  their  character  and 
requiring  some  discrimination  in  their  use.  It 
contains  records  of  experiences  lying  in  the 
sphere  of  immediate  consciousness,  such  as  the 
conversion  of  Paul  or  the  repentance  of  Peter; 
and  here  we  have  evidently  testimony  which  is 
not  of  essentially  different  character  from  that 
given  to-day  by  Christians  who  pass  through  sim- 
ilar experiences.  It  contains  also  records  of  ob- 
served facts,  such  as  the  life  of  our  Lord,  "  corus- 
cating with  miracles,  succumbing  to  injuries"; 


92  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

the  progress  of  the  church  under  the  gift  and 
gliding  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  and  ac- 
counts further,  of  what  I  may  call  divine  facts, 
which,  if  known  at  all,  could  only  be  known  by 
communications  from  God,  such  as  the  pre-exist- 
ence  of  Christ  and  the  awards  of  the  judgment 
day.  Then  explanations  of  these  things  are  add- 
ed, sometimes  by  communicating  other  divine 
facts,  as  when  the  pre-existence  of  Christ  is  ex- 
plained by  the  eternal  existence  of  the  Logos  with 
God,  and  sometimes  by  suggestions  of  great  prin- 
ciples, as  when  the  death  of  Christ  is  referred  to 
his  priestly  office  by  which  he  is  both  priest  and 
victim,  and  this  office  to  eternal  considerations 
lying  in  the  nature  and  law  of  God.  Thus  there 
comes  to  be  taught  a  vast  body  of  doctrine,  some 
of  which  is  remote  from  the  utterances  of  any 
human  consciousness,  but  all  of  which  belongs  in 
some  degree,  nearer  or  remoter,  to  the  experience 
of  these  first  disciples  and  is  a  part  of  their  pre- 
cious gift  to  the  church.  And,  finally,  there  are 
multitudes  of  recorded  impressions  and  of  sug- 
gestions and  glimpses  of  truth,  of  confessed  lim- 
itations, of  astonishing  and  well-nigh  unbounded 
claims,  which  are  part  of  the  general  impression 
which  the  disciples  gathered  as  they  passed  on  in 
the  Christian  course,  and  which  have  value  in 
varying  degree  for  us.  All  of  these  elements  add 
complexity  to  the  testimony  of  the  Bible  to  the 
contents  of  Christian  experience  and  present  to 
the  investigator  the  important  question  as  to  what 


Christian  Experience  93 

he  is  to  regard  as  a  genuine  portion  of  original 
Christian  experience  and  how  far  he  can  use  it 
in  the  determination  of  what  is  true.  In  other 
words,  the  criticism  of  the  contents  of  Christian 
experience  begins  as  soon  as  the  enquirer  passes 
the  hmits  of  his  own  consciousness.  Other  criti- 
cism might  be  included  here,  as  for  example,  the 
historical  criticism  of  the  age,  origin,  integrity, 
and  internal  reliability  of  the  New  Testament 
books ;  but  this  the  limitation  of  our  time  compels 
us  to  leave  unexamined.  We  may  leave  it  the 
more  readily  because  there  is  a  sufficiently  gen- 
eral acceptance  of  the  picture  given  of  our  Lord 
in  the  four  gospels  as  correct  and  a  sufficiently 
complete  view  of  the  theology  of  Paul  in  the  four 
undisputed  epistles.  Minor  matters  we  are  not 
concerned  with.  In  the  face  of  so  much  agree- 
ment as  we  may  presuppose  on  the  New  Testa- 
ment itself,  our  sole  question  is.  What  shall  we 
do  with  this  New  Testament  as  a  document  of 
Christian  experience  ?  The  simple  canon  that  the 
New  Testament  will  be  found  a  source  of  Chris- 
tian experience,  and  in  some  large  degree  a  nor- 
mative source,  proves  insufficient  in  view  of  the 
actual  multiplicity  of  the  phenomena.  What  is 
experience  here,  and  what  something  else?  Is 
all  of  equal  value?  And,  particularly,  in  respect 
to  matters  in  which  my  experience  fails,  has  the 
Bible  anything  of  value  to  teach  me?  and  does  it 
there,  or  anywhere,  possess  a  true  authority  in 
the  religious  sphere  ? 


94  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

Ritschl's  canon  will  be  found  incapable  of  an- 
swering these  questions.  The  Ritschlian  school 
exercises  a  constant  criticism  on  the  experiential 
and  doctrinal  contents  of  the  New  Testament  so 
as  well  nigh  to  deprive  it  of  all  doctrinal  author- 
ity. In  the  sphere  of  what  is  delivered  by  the 
immediate  consciousness  there  is  less  question, 
since  there  can  be  little,  although  even  here  the 
appreciation  of  the  Scripture  is  hindered  by 
Ritschl's  failure  to  recognize  distinctly  the  new 
birth  as  the  ultimate  Christian  fact.  On  such  a 
doctrine,  for  example,  as  the  pre-existence  of 
Christ,  Ritschl  himself  preserves  a  reticent  atti- 
tude, on  the  ground  that  pre-existence  is  a  matter 
of  no  "  interest  "  to  the  Christian ;  but  Beyschlag, 
who  may  be  reckoned  for  substance  of  doctrine  to 
the  Ritschlian  school,  seeks  to  evacuate  Jesus' 
own  words  recorded  by  John  by  explaining  them 
as  figurative  ways  of  expressing  the  conception 
that  he  was  in  perfect  accord  with  God.  Paul's 
clear  statements  of  pre-existence  are  said  to  be 
his  private  theoretical  explanations  of  the  fact  of 
Christ's  exaltation  and  reign.  We  shall,  no 
doubt,  have  occasion  to  recur  to  the  details  of 
these  exegetical  peculiarities  later;  enough  now 
to  remark  that  they  are  a  denial  of  all  authority 
on  the  part  of  the  New  Testament  writers  to 
teach  us  the  truth  of  God,  or  even  to  give  an  un- 
questioned account  of  the  original  Christian  ex- 
perience. When  they  tell  us  something  which 
can  be  corroborated  from  our  own  experience. 


Christian  Experience  95 

they  are  to  be  followed,  in  this  view;  otherwise 
not.  They  are,  in  fact,  rendered  almost  super- 
fluous. 

In  spite  of  all  this,  Ritschl  laid  great  emphasis 
upon  the  idea  of  revelation,  and  deserves  the 
credit  of  having  set  forth  with  more  clearness 
than  most  of  his  contemporaries  the  fact  that 
Christianity  is  distinctly  a  religion  of  revelation. 
Kaftan's  position  upon  this  point  has  been  already 
stated.  Revelation  is  the  second  of  his  funda- 
mental "  postulates  "  and  an  essential  element  of 
the  knowledge  gained  through  the  exercise  of  the 
practical  reason.  He  has  the  advantage  over 
Ritschl  of  much  less  arbitrariness  of  method  and 
of  far  greater  faithfulness  to  the  objective  results 
of  careful  exegesis.  As  the  best  representative 
of  the  present  point  attained  by  the  school  of 
Ritschl,  he  may  justly  claim  a  larger  share  of  our 
attention. 

In  the  "  Dogmatik  "  Kaftan  treats  the  topic  of 
revelation  in  the  introductory  chapters.^  With 
much  that  he  says  evangelical  theologians  will 
most  heartily  agree.  Revelation  is  not  the  com- 
munication of  abstract  truths  in  the  form  of  sci- 
entific propositions,  but  the  contact  of  God  with 
the  soul.  The  Bible  is  therefore  not  an  abstract, 
external  authority  apart  from  all  spiritual  recep- 
tivity in  the  Christian.  Yet  there  is  in  the  Bible 
an  element  of  instruction  in  truth,  and  this  is  an 
"  essential  element."     It  contains  a  "  revelation  of 

*  I  quote  here  more  or  less  exactly  from  pages  31  ff. 


g6  Christian  Life  and  Theology 

the  will  and  essence  of  God  ".  And  it  is,  further, 
essential  to  Christianity  that  the  revelation  of 
God  should  become  individual  to  the  single  Chris- 
tian, or  that,  in  some  way,  that  original  revelation 
made  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ  and  now  for 
us  comprised  in  the  Bible  should  be  communica- 
ted to  the  individual  as  a  living  and  personal  con- 
tact of  God  with  him  afresh.  This  is  effected  by 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  vivifies  the  scrip- 
tural record  and  applies  it,  so  that  the  awakened 
soul  comes  to  an  understanding  of  it  and  finds 
God  in  it.  Hence  the  order  of  spiritual  events  is : 
(i)  the  historical  revelation  of  God  by  Jesus  of 
Nazareth;  (2)  The  individual  application  of  this 
in  inner  revelation  by  the  Holy  Spirit;  (3)  faith; 
(4)  obedience;  (5)  knowledge  of  the  truth.^ 

Now,  this  "  faith  "  is  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  who 
is  the  person  in  whom  the  revelation,  thus  applied 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  made.  "  Revelation  and 
faith,"  says  Kaftan,^  "  belong  together.  The  in- 
tended object  of  revelation  is  faith,  and  faith  in 
the  religious  sense  of  the  word  can  come  into 
being  only  when  some  real  or  supposed  revelation 
of  God  is  found.  Also,  the  understanding  of  the 
one  term  is  to  be  gained  only  from  the  other; 
and  we  have  to  take  our  departure  from  the  idea 
of  faith  since  this  is  the  nearer,  the  more  directly 
known.  Now,  Christian  faith  is  present  when- 
ever a   man   passes   through   those   experiences 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  38,cf.  pp.  23,  25,  31. 
*lbid.,  p.  41. 


Christian  Experience  97 

which  center  about  the  two  facts  of  the  atonement 
and  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  is  from  these  expe- 
riences that  the  Christian's  knowledge  of  the  es- 
sence and  the  will  of  God  comes And 

when  we  analyze  faith,  we  find  that,  according  to 
its  own  inner  logic,  revelation  is  the  preceding 
and  constitutive  of  the  two  facts.  .  .  .  Faith 
arises  through  the  word  of  revelation  in  which 
the  Spirit  works,  therefore  it  arises  as  an  effect 
produced  by  the  Spirit."  And  later  he  adds: 
"  Revelation  and  faith  have  an  inner  relation  to 
one  another,  but  we  must  now  bring  into  the 
treatment  of  the  topic  the  significance  of  the 
Scriptures.  It  is  the  revelation  of  God  witnessed 
in  the  Scriptures  of  which  all  the  above  is  true. 
If  revelation  is  cause  and  faith  effect,  revelation 
must  precede  faith  and  be  independent  of  it. 
This  is  secured  by  referring  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures as  the  word  of  God,  in  which  and  through 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  works  faith  in  men  from 
time  to  time,  and  so  brings  the  revelation  to  in- 
dividual men."  Thus  at  last,  though  not  prima- 
rily and  directly,  the  Bible  brings  knowledge  of 
divine  things  to  men. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Kaftan  fully  accepts 
the  reality  of  revelation  in  Jesus  Christ  and  of 
the  Bible  as  the  great  medium  of  bringing  that 
revelation  to  us,  and  that  he  also  accepts,  though 
somewhat  haltingly,  the  authority  of  the  Bible  in 
matters  of  Christian  knowledge.  His  defective 
theory  of  knowledge,  which  we  have  examined 


pS  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 

earlier,  prevents  him  from  gaining  all  from  this 
position  which  he  should.  His  theological 
method  is  to  employ  the  Bible  as  determinative  in 
respect  to  the  great  controlling  ideas  of  the  faith 
and  then  seek  by  an  independent  analysis  of  these 
to  arrive  at  a  consistent  body  of  truth.  Minute 
biblical  justification  of  his  ideas  he  does  not  aim 
at.  He  has  the  decided  merit  of  having  held  fast 
to  the  idea  that  the  authority  of  the  Bible  is  to 
be  approached  from  the  side  of  experience;  but 
he  has  failed  to  develop  this  argument  and  so  to 
afford  any  ground  for  its  authority  essentially 
better  than  his  original  "  postulation "  of  the 
reality  of  revelation.  While  in  his  results  he  has 
passed  far  beyond  Ritschl,  he  has  made  little  gain 
in  giving  us  a  sound  foundation  for  a  doctrine 
of  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures. 

We  must  therefore  proceed  in  our  investiga- 
tion of  our  question  without  much  help  from 
Kaftan.  Have  the  Scriptures  authority  in  mat- 
ters of  doctrine  ?  The  true  question  at  issue  here 
is  one  of  the  most  fundamental.  Taking  as  our 
example  that  doctrine  already  mentioned,  the  pre- 
existence  of  Christ,  the  question  whether  the 
plain  meaning  of  Christ's  own  words  is  to  be  ac- 
cepted as  true,  or  rejected,  as  by  Beyschlag,  by 
means  of  violent  exegesis  which  makes  them  the 
expression  of  the  conception  that  beneath  his  per- 
sonality, as  its  ultimate  ground,  was  the  very  be- 
ing of  God, — this  is  a  question  emphasized  rather 
than  answered  by  Kaftan.     If  it  is  the  New  Tes- 


Christian  Experience  99 

tament  Scriptures  which  the  Holy  Spirit  applies 
to  man,  furnishing  him  thereby  such  knowledge 
of  the  essence  and  will  of  God  as  leads  him  to 
faith  and  the  new  life,  and  if  the  same  Holy  Spirit 
employs  the  same  New  Testament  in  the  further 
development  of  Christian  piety,  then  God  speaks 
to-day  through  this  book;  and  when  God  speaks, 
he  speaks  with  authority.  Kaftan  does  not  oc- 
cupy the  hesitant  or  negative  position  of  Ritschl 
and  Beyschlag  as  to  the  pre-existence  of  Christ. 
He  recognizes  it  as  an  element  of  truth  used  in 
the  edification  of  Christians,  if  not  in  the  original 
development  of  their  faith.  But,  after  all,  he 
gives  us  no  ground,  no  precise  and  adequate 
ground,  for  biblical  authority.  It  still  remains  a 
problem  rather  than  an  established  fact. 

The  question  is  therefore  forced  upon  us,  Can 
anything  better  be  done  for  this  theme  than  has 
been  done  by  these  two  great  men  who  have 
sought  with  new  earnestness  to  found  Christian- 
ity and  Christian' theology  upon  revelation?  In 
reply,  we  first  raise  the  question  as  to  the  possi- 
bility of  any  revelation  at  all,  for  this  is  the  fun- 
damental question. 

Now,  this  general  question  is  already  settled 
for  the  Christian  by  the  deliverances  of  his  pri- 
mary experience.  When  he  comes  to  know  God 
as  personally  operative  in  the  world  for  his  salva- 
tion, he  has  the  certainty  that  any  personal  opera- 
tion of  God  which  may  be  necessary  for  the  spir- 
itual good  of  man  is  both  possible  and  probable. 


lOO        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

As  he  knows  God  more  fully,  and  recognizes  in 
him  the  Creator  of  the  Universe,  he  sets  no 
bounds  to  the  divine  power,  as  he  cannot  to  the 
divine  benevolence.  Any  form  of  the  supernat- 
ural is  therefore  to  be  granted  possible  because 
of  the  nature  and  character  of  God.  Certainly 
God,  who  made  the  world,  has  not  fallen  a  victim 
to  his  own  contrivances,  nor  are  his  laws,  the  es- 
tablished method  of  his  operation,  objective  en- 
tities which  control  his  action,  and  render  other 
ways  of  operating  impossible.  If  Jesus  Christ 
claims  to  be  a  pre-existent  being  come  from 
heaven  for  man's  salvation,  the  only  attitude 
possible  for  one  who  has  learned  the  initial  les- 
sons of  experience  is  that  of  inquiry  as  to  the 
tokens  offered  in  substantiation  of  so  great  a 
claim,  not  of  immediate  and  irremovable  scepti- 
cism as  to  its  possibility. 

But  the  greater  thing  will  not  be  done  if  the 
less  is  not.  If  there  is  no  such  thing  as  revela- 
tion to  apostles  and  prophets,  there  will  be  no 
coming  of  a  pre-existent  Christ.  The  question, 
therefore,  resolves  itself,  as  already  implied,  into 
one  as  to  the  reality  of  all  revelation.  Upon  this 
experience  has  a  direct  word  to  say.  The  Chris- 
tian knows  that  God  led  him  personally  to 
thoughts  and  feelings  resulting  in  a  great  change 
of  will  at  the  beginning  of  his  religious  life. 
More  than  this,  he  recognizes  divine  leading  at 
many  critical  junctures  of  life.  When  great  de- 
cisions are  to  be  made,  or  a  great  truth  must  be 


Christian  Experience  loi 

conceived  if  his  course  is  still  to  be  right  and  di- 
vinely led,  the  same  train  of  argument  from  the 
assemblage  of  facts  and  events  about  him  as  was 
reviewed  when  we  were  considering  the  funda- 
mental crisis  of  his  life,  leads  him  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  God  personally  teaches  and  guides  him 
now.  Pious  men  have  felt  this  in  business,  in 
invention,  in  statesmanship,  in  the  affairs  of  the 
church,  and  have  gratefully  acknowledged  the 
divine  hand  in  their  thoughts  as  well  as  in  their 
acts.  This  is  the  essence  and  irresolvable  ele- 
ment of  all  revelation.  Revelation  is  the  personal 
communication  of  thought  to  the  soul  by  God. 
Let  the  objective  method  be  never  so  clear  and 
impressive,  yet  the  subjective  perception  must 
follow,  or  the  revelation  is  not  made.  When  en- 
tire uncertainty  broods  over  the  method,  the  fact 
may  be  quite  clear.  The  Christian  apologist  who 
was  contending  only  for  the  ultimate  essentials, 
and  was  ready  to  concede  every  unessential  ele- 
ment that  he  might  the  more  vigorously  defend 
the  essential,  might  declare  himself  contented  if 
after  every  objective  channel  of  revelation, — 
voice,  vision,  or  miraculous  sign, — had  been  ex- 
plained as  the  projection  upon  the  screen  of 
sense  of  the  image  of  that  which  had  its  only  ex- 
istence in  the  secret  center  of  the  soul,  this  was 
left  undisputed,  that  God  might  personally  guide 
men's  thoughts  to  things  otherwise  impercepti- 
ble to  them,  and  that  they  might  recognize  the 
personal  Presence  through  the  character  of  the 


102  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
thought  conveyed  by  it,  or  through  the  method  of 
its  approach.  When  the  first  thought  came  to 
some  Hebrew  singer  that  the  wrath  of  God 
against  Israel  was  but  another  side  of  his  mercy, 
that  disaster  was  not  an  unmixed  evil,  and  not 
even  the  captivity  an  utter  desertion  of  the  nation 
by  God,  that  the  covenant  was  indeed  an  ever- 
lasting covenant,  and  the  recovery  of  Israel  the 
work  of  God  and  not  the  clever  achievement  of 
man ;  that  profound  thought,  shining  by  its  own 
light,  illuminating  the  recesses  of  a  mysterious 
past,  exalting  the  soul  to  new  faith  and  devoted 
exertion,  and  opening  vistas  along  which  the  ful- 
fillment of  promises  made  of  old  to  Abraham 
might  be  seen  already  advancing,  needed  little 
from  without  to  convince  the  thrilled  prophet  that 
he  was  in  the  presence  of  a  self-revealing  God. 
And  even  if  Paul  had  seen  no  objective  vision 
and  heard  no  objective  voice  on  the  way  to  Da- 
mascus, if  the  truth  simply  were  that  his  obsti- 
nate mind,  bent  on  persecution,  and  occupied  by 
no  gentle  meditations  upon  the  Man  of  Galilee, 
was  suddenly  seized  by  an  invasion  of  tumultuous 
thought,  that  fact  after  fact  and  proof  after  proof 
that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah  were  arrayed  before 
his  reflection,  till  the  conclusion  that  he  whom 
he  persecuted  was  truly  Christ  and  Lord  burst 
out  of  the  storm-laden  and  murky  atmosphere  of 
his  Jewish  prejudices  in  a  flash  of  blinding  illu- 
mination, that  would  have  been  for  him  a  thought 
of  no  subjective  origin,  derived  in  no  degree  from 


Christian  Experience  103 

his  environment,  but  divine  in  its  source  as  in  its 
nature. 

The  actual  limitations  put  by  the  Ritschlian 
school  on  the  voice  of  the  New  Testament  wit- 
ness to  Christian  experience  are  therefore  unnec- 
essary. But  they  are  inconsistent  with  what  is 
actually  admitted  to  be  reliable,  as  all  such  subjec- 
tive criticism  is  in  danger  of  being  because  of  its 
necessarily  arbitrary  character.  If  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  the  primitive  record  of  Christian  ex- 
perience, and  thus  of  prime  importance  in  its  in- 
terpretation, then  every  element  of  the  testimony 
must  be  given  its  appropriate  weight,  apart  from 
the  suggestions  of  a  false  and  anti-Christian  phi- 
losophy. To  permit  the  apostles  to  testify  to  the 
facts  of  the  life  of  Christ  and  to  be  the  vehicles  to 
us  of  some  of  the  most  vital  religious  truths, 
which  have  since  revolutionized  the  world,  but  to 
refuse  them  all  opportunity  to  express  their  con- 
victions as  to  the  meaning  of  those  facts  and  to 
deny  their  declaration  of  the  divine  origin  of  just 
those  doctrines  which  have  proved  most  effective 
in  the  production  of  the  historical  revolution,  such 
as  the  Incarnation,  is  to  play  fast  and  loose  with 
the  book  and  the  original  Christian  experience  it- 
self. Kaftan,  as  we  have  seen,  has  mended  much 
of  this.  Merely  as  an  historical  document,  much 
more  as  what  it  is,  the  New  Testament  deserves 
better  treatment. 

But  it  is  more  than  an  historical  document,  and 
more  than  what  Kaftan  has  found  it  to  be.     We 


I04        Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
have  seen  that  a  better  foundation  is  needed  for 
the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  than  he  succeeded 
in  providing,  and  now  it  becomes  incumbent  upon 
us  to  seek  ourselves  to  provide  it. 

The  Bible,  we  say,  is  more  than  merely  an  his- 
torical document ;  it  partakes  of  the  divinity  of  its 
doctrines.     This  follows  so: — 

The  Christian  has  acquired  through  his  Chris- 
tian experience  insight  into  the  character  of  this 
book.  He  recognizes  its  divinity.  He  has  him- 
self learnt  by  experience  the  great  truths  of  sin 
and  consequent  ruin,  of  repentance  and  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ,  of  the  prevenient  grace  of  God,  and 
of  justification  by  faith.  Those  doctrines  are  not 
only  true  and  divine  but  divinely  conveyed  to 
him,  because  all  his  experience  is  divinely 
wrought  experience.  He  judges  that  only  on  the 
path  of  a  divinely  wrought  experience  can  the 
knowledge  of  these  truths  come  to  him  or  any 
one.  They  cannot  be  so  delivered  from  one  man 
to  another  that  he  shall  be  able  in  consequence  to 
utter  them  with  knowledge.  But  the  Bible  has 
them,  and  holds  them  with  the  perfect  certainty 
of  indisputable  conviction.  It  knows;  and  its 
knowledge,  like  that  of  the  modern  Christian,  is 
God-given.  God  speaking  in  the  experience  of 
the  writers  of  the  Bible,  speaks  in  the  book  itself. 
It  is  God's  word. 

This  is  an  argument  not  reduced  by  the  com- 
mon Christian,  nor  always  by  the  trained  theolo- 
gian, to  logical  form.     The  Reformers,  face  to 


Christian  Experience  105 

face  with  the  vaunted  testimony  of  the  church  to 
the  Scriptures,  called  it  the  testimony  of  the 
Spirit  (testimonium  Spiritus  Sancti  inter- 
num)'^ But  it  is  easily  brought  under  the  cate- 
gories of  logic.  It  is  an  argument  from  identity 
of  effects,  the  doctrines  of  experience  and  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Bible,  to  identity  of  cause,  the  same 
God  in  the  Bible  through  experience  as  in  my 
own  conscious  experience.  As  such,  it  is  an  ar- 
gument applying  with  different  force  to  different 
elements  in  the  Bible.  For  the  central  doctrines 
of  the  Bible,  which  are  the  same  as  those  whose 

*  I  have  been  criticised  for  saying  elsewhere  that  the 
argument  here  presented  is  the  Reformation  doctrine  of 
the  "  testimony  of  the  Spirit ".  It  has  been  said  that 
that  was  the  doctrine  that  Christians  under  the  illumina- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit  were  enabled  to  perceive  at  once 
the  divinity  of  the  Bible.  The  Spirit  rectified  the  organs 
of  spiritual  vision  so  that  Christians  could  now  see  the 
tnith.  That  is  a  correct  statement  of  the  Reformers* 
position.  But  the  Reformers  stated  the  doctrine  without 
giving  any  hint  of  its  rationale,  probably  without  under- 
standing what  the  rationale  is.  Their  utterances  are  all 
figurative  and  need  explanation.  There  is,  in  fact, 
nothing  here  like  "  vision  ".  The  truth  of  doctrines  can 
be  perceived  only  by  the  perception  of  their  agreement 
with  other  truth  already  known.  Hence  the  doctrine 
needs  to  be  brought  to  a  better  statement  than  the  Re- 
formers gave  it;  and  this  statement,  I  think,  has  been 
given  in  the  text.  This  doctrine  is  the  Reformation 
doctrine  in  the  sense  that  it  puts  in  a  reasonable  and  in- 
telligible form  what  the  Reformers  put  in  a  figurative 
and  unintelligible  form.  Compare  Stearns,  "  Evidence 
of  Christian  Experience  ",  pp.  303,  304. 


io6  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
genesis  in  experience  we  have  already  followed, 
it  is  of  the  most  direct  application  and  the 
most  cogent  character.  The  Bible  in  its  central 
and  determinative  elements  is  the  word  of  God, 
that  is,  the  channel  by  which  he  still  speaks  to 
men.  So  much  the  proof  directly  and  positively 
covers. 

But  it  covers  still  more  in  consequence  of  the 
natural  implications  of  what  has  been  thus  gained. 
The  elements  of  its  doctrine  already  reviewed 
have  been  called  determinative;  and  they  are  so. 
They  constitute  the  peculiar  Christian  view  of  the 
world  as  the  creation  of  a  good  God,  debased  to 
become  a  kingdom  of  evil,  in  which  God  in  his 
love  is  erecting  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  saving 
processes  set  in  motion  by  his  personal  activity. 
Such  ideas  must  be  dominating.  Let  any  think- 
er have  them,  and  we  shall  know  what  the  rest  of 
his  philosophy  of  divine  things  will  be.  If  right 
here,  the  Bible  may  be  assumed  to  be  right  every- 
where, and  this  by  a  reasonable  assumption,  not 
liable  to  be  subsequently  overthrown. 

But  there  is  another  argument,  which  must 
wait  for  a  full  presentation  till  we  have  carried 
our  study  farther,  but  which,  by  an  anticipation 
to  be  made  good  later,  we  may  now  introduce  for 
the  sake  of  completeness.  We  are  soon  to  come 
to  matters  of  Christian  doctrine  also  known  to  the 
Christian  experimentally  though  possessing  a  de- 
gree of  certainty  inferior  to  that  possessed  by  the 
elements    already    developed.     These    are    also 


Christian  Experience  107 

found  in  the  Bible ;  and  the  argument  is  the  same. 
Identity  of  effect  proves  identity  of  cause.  God- 
wrought  experience  proves  a  God-wrought  Bible. 
Some  of  these  truths  are  also  determinative,  as 
the  divinity  of  Christ;  and  hence  their  proving 
force  as  to  the  Bible  reaches  further  than  the 
parts  of  it  in  which  they  are  found.  The  argu- 
ment grows  as  experience  grows  till  at  last  there 
remains  very  little  in  the  Bible  that  is  not  quite 
directly  covered  by  it.  The  Bible  as  a  whole  is 
the  word  of  God,  the  effective  channel  conveying 
his  truth. 

Time  fails  fully  to  buttress  and  defend  this  ar- 
gument now ;  but  enough  must  be  taken  for  two 
objections,  which  will  be  unfailingly  put: — 

I.  It  may  be  said:  Christian  experience  is 
formed  by  the  Bible.  Of  course,  therefore,  it 
agrees  with  the  Bible;  but  its  agreement  is  no 
proof  of  the  Bible's  truth.  Dependent  on  it,  ex- 
perience must  agree  with  it,  right  or  wrong.  We 
reply.  No!  Experience  is  occasioned  by  the  Bi- 
ble, called  forth,  elicited  by  the  Bible:  but  it  is 
independent.  Descartes  may  have  called  my  at- 
tention to  the  argument  for  my  existence  from 
the  fact  of  thought ;  but  when  I  say :  "  I  think, 
therefore  I  am,"  I  know  my  existence  not  by  gift 
of  Descartes,  but  by  the  independent  testimony  of 
my  own  consciousness.  Whatever  occasioned 
the  new  birth  in  my  soul,  if  I  have  it,  I  know  it, 
and  I  know  what  is  involved  in  it  independently 
of  all  other  beings  and  things.     And  I  reason  in 


io8        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

the  above  delineated  argument  from  this  inde- 
pendent knowledge. 

2.  It  may  be  objected  again:  Your  argument 
has  proving  force  only  so  far  as  experience  goes, 
and  hence  can  never  prove  the  authority  of  the 
whole  Bible,  or  give  any  true  authority.  True, 
we  reply,  there  can  be  no  result  in  the  conclu- 
sion which  was  not  in  the  premises,  and  these  be- 
ing experiential,  tell  nothing  about  what  is  be- 
yond experience.  But  the  argument  does  cover 
the  Bible  as  a  whole,  if  not  the  whole  Bible ;  and 
it  gives  it  this  degree  of  authority,  that  the  Bible 
is  true  as  far  as  I  can  test  it,  and  is  therefore  to 
be  believed  still  further,  if  there  is  no  contrary 
evidence.     Is  not  that  authority? 

We  shall  recur  to  this  last  objection  again.  For 
the  present  we  pass  on  to  remark:  Such  is  the 
Bible  which  experience  gives  us.  The  line  of  ar- 
gument here  followed  is  not  the  only  line  that  can 
be  followed,  and  not  necessarily  the  best.  Let  us 
not  claim  for  it  more  than  it  will  bear,  and  let  us 
not  descend  to  comparisons  and  contentions.  But 
now,  the  serious  question  will  be  put,  Has  not 
experience  by  creating  a  biblical  authority  de- 
posed itself  as  a  source  of  doctrine  ? 

Kaftan  abandoned  experience  as  a  source  of 
theology  in  favor  of  the  authority  of  revelation. 
"  Theology,"  he  says,  "  has  only  to  unfold  a 
given  truth,"  not  to  discover  it,  and  not  to  defend 
it.  With  this  better  derivation  of  the  biblical 
authority,  must  not  the  Bible  be  made  the  source 


Christian  Experience  109 

of  theology  to  the  exclusion  of  experience  ?  Why- 
draw  from  a  fountain  which  confessedly  may  be 
tainted  with  subjectivism  when  the  untainted 
fountain  of  God's  word  is  pouring  forth  so  abun- 
dantly its  crystal  purity? 

We  reply  that,  so  far  as  this  argument  is  con- 
cerned, experience,  as  already  said,  needs  to  be 
pushed  much  further  before  the  argument  is  com- 
plete. To  pause  here  with  experience  because 
experience  has  given  you  a  perfect  source  of  doc- 
trine in  the  Bible  would  be  to  pause  before  expe- 
rience has  accomplished  that  task.  We  must  re- 
member that  we  have  "  anticipated  "  the  argu- 
ment, which  still  waits  for  its  actual  justification. 
And,  again,  we  are  not  asking  whether  experi- 
ence is  a  source  of  doctrine  of  higher  or  lower 
value,  better  or  worse  than  the  Bible.  Enough 
that  it  is  a  source :  let  us  see  what  it  gives  us.  "  In 
the  multitude  of  counsellors  there  is  safety."  It 
may  be  of  value  to  have  another  witness  beside 
the  Bible,  even  if  this  is  unimpeachable. 

We  have  thus  gained,  as  was  intimated  at  the 
beginning  of  the  discussion  we  should,  more  than 
we  sought.  We  sought  to  know  whether  the  Bi- 
ble was  a  source  of  Christian  experience  upon 
which  we  might  rely  for  the  correction  of  our  in- 
dividual aberrations.  We  have  gained  an  answer 
to  this  question  and  more.  We  now  know  that 
the  experiential  utterances  of  the  Bible  must  be 
normative,  for  they  were  the  product  of  the  oper- 


no        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

ation  of  God  upon  the  minds  of  holy  men.  But 
we  also  recognize  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God, 
and  thus  have  derived  the  doctrine  of  biblical  au- 
thority. This  is  a  new  and  a  very  important  con- 
tribution of  experience  to  the  system  of  doctrine. 
We  mark  the  contribution  as  we  proceed  in  our 
study. 

We  must  still  linger  in  the  region  of  the  for- 
mal, but  it  will  be  for  but  one  cycle  of  investiga- 
tion more.  We  shall  then  be  able  to  proceed 
steadily  with  the  remaining  portions  of  our  con- 
structive work. 

There  is  one  great  source  of  Christian  experi- 
ence remaining,  and  as  we  pass  to  it  we  shall  be 
struck  immediately  with  the  contrasts  which  it 
presents  to  the  Bible,  by  which  the  worth  of  the 
Bible  will  be  indefinitely  magnified.  This  source 
is  the  experience  of  the  church,  which  is  the  as- 
sembly of  those  in  whom  Christianity  has  been  at 
work  and  through  whom  it  has  produced  its  ef- 
fects upon  the  world  since  the  New  Testament 
period.  It  forms  with  the  Bible  that  general 
body  of  Christian  experience  to  which,  we  have 
already  seen,  appeal  must  be  made  to  guard 
against  the  possible  errors  of  a  purely  subjective 
investigation.  It  is  for  our  present  purpose  em- 
bodied in  the  results  of  the  critical  history  of 
Christian  theology. 

The  history  of  doctrine  is  a  source  of  the  testi- 
mony of  Christian  experience  because  doctrine 


Christian  Experience  iii 

grows  out  of  experience  as  thought  grows  out  of 
life. 

When  we  pass  out  of  the  New  Testament  into 
the  earliest  Christian  writers,  we  become  con- 
scious, as  just  suggested,  of  the  lower  level  on 
which  the  thought  is  moving.  As  the  twelve  dis- 
ciples could  not  rise  to  the  full  understanding  or 
appreciation  of  their  Master,  the  members  and 
leaders  of  the  first  churches  could  not  maintain 
the  level  of  the  inspired  apostles.  Their  thought 
is  less  lofty,  less  consistent,  less  broad  in  its  range, 
less  profound.  The  first  of  them,  the  writer  of 
the  "  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  ",  deals 
with  ethical  and  liturgical  questions,  and  with 
matters  of  church  order;  but  all  is  simple,  con- 
crete, untheological.  Ignatius,  the  martyr  who 
travelled  from  Antioch  to  Rome  and  recorded  his 
thoughts  as  he  went  in  letters  to  various  churches, 
has  no  proper  theology.  Even  so  important  and 
immediately  practical  a  doctrine  as  justification 
by  faith  may  be  clearly  expressed  upon  one  page 
and  obscured  or  denied  upon  another  by  any  one 
of  these  writers,  as  is  actually  done  by  Clement  of 
Rome.  There  is  abundant  evidence  of  evangeli- 
cal piety  in  all  these  earliest  literary  productions 
of  the  church,  which  element  is  undoubtedly  the 
reason  why  they  have  been  preserved.  Ignatius 
could  die  for  his  Master,  and  recognizes  his  lord- 
ship by  many  phrases  of  profound  significance. 
Polycarp  could  refuse  to  deny  him.     Even  the 


112        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

"  Teaching  "  breathes  the  Johannine  atmosphere. 
But  piety  has  not  yet  flowered  into  theology. 
Christian  thinking  is  still  rudimentary  and  incon- 
sistent, its  various  elements  are  unadjusted,  and 
it  needs  the  fire  of  some  great  emergency  to  fuse 
its  separate  truths  into  an  harmonious  system. 
The  unity  of  the  Christian  life,  from  the  moment 
when  Peter  preached  repentance  to  the  multitude 
at  Pentecost  in  Jerusalem  to  the  time  when  the 
old  man  met  Justin  by  the  sea  and  directed  his  at- 
tention to  the  Scriptures,  is  plainly  exhibited ;  but 
the  grounds  of  that  unity  are  not  set  forth,  and 
evidently  not  theologically  understood. 

But  Christian  piety  tended  from  the  beginning 
towards  theological  statement.  We  trace  three 
distinct  lines  of  influence  operating  in  this  direc- 
tion; one,  the  influence  of  the  intellectual  nature 
of  man  which,  driven  by  its  native  springs  of  ac- 
tion, seeks  to  analyze  all  its  knowledge  and  re- 
duce it  to  first  principles ;  a  second,  the  practical 
necessity  to  the  propagation  of  the  faith  that  mis- 
sionaries should  themselves  understand  what  they 
seek  to  communicate  to  others ;  and  a  third,  the 
intellectual  crisis  introduced  by  the  first  contact 
of  the  church  with  Greek  thought  when  it  was 
seen  to  be  necessary  to  justify  before  the  think- 
ing of  the  world  that  system  which  as  surely 
sought  to  dominate  the  mind  of  man  as  it  did  his 
will.  Christianity  could  neither  maintain  itself 
before  the  world  nor  in  the  forum  of  its  own  con- 
sciousness except  it  gained  a  consistent  view  of 


Christian  Experience  113 

its  intellectual  principles,  unless,  in  other  words, 
it  developed  a  theology. 

When  one  glances  down  the  vista  of  this  de- 
veloping Christian  thought,  he  is  impressed  with 
the  fact  that  there  are  many  successive  critical 
points  in  the  history.  As  the  inrushing  tide  ad- 
vances from  the  ocean  in  successive  waves,  so 
successive  masses  of  doctrine  are  borne  in  from 
the  great  infinite  of  the  divine  truth  upon  the  re- 
cipient soul  of  man.  About  the  persons  of  Atha- 
nasius,  Leo,  Augustine,  Luther  and  others,  cen- 
tered discussions  which  added  materially  by  their 
outcome  to  the  treasure  of  articulated  Christian 
knowledge.  While  these  discussions  differed  as 
to  their  subject  matter,  and  as  to  their  importance 
to  Christian  theology,  they  were  alike  in  the  great 
features  of  formal  development.  In  every  case 
they  had  their  roots  in  the  remotest  past,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament ; 
they  were  preceded  by  a  period  in  which  every 
element  of  the  final  outcome  may  be  traced,  sus- 
pended, as  it  were,  in  solution,  or,  to  speak  more 
literally,  unadjusted  to  other  elements,  and  often 
uncomprehended  in  its  necessary  implications; 
they  were  conducted  by  a  controversy  in  which 
different  parties  represented  different  theoretical 
explanations  of  admitted  facts  or  different  as- 
pects of  truth  often  with  the  passion  of  men  who 
thought  that  with  them  and  their  doctrine  the 
church  "  stood  or  fell " ;  they  resulted  each  in  a 
settlement,  substantially  by  the  common  consent 


114        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

of  the  participating  church,  though  sometimes 
formally  by  the  influence  of  some  overshadow- 
ing personality  or  assembly;  and  they  were  al- 
ways followed  by  a  period  of  appropriation,  in 
which  their  results  were  slowly  incorporated  in 
the  thinking  of  the  great  universal  church.  In 
all  the  process  so  described  we  perceive  the  state- 
ly operation  of  innate  vital  forces,  the  evolution 
of  opinion  upon  the  significance  of  facts  long 
since  known,  through  the  process  of  comprehen- 
sive intellectual  examination  by  a  multitude  of 
minds. 

The  element  of  succession  is  not  without  a 
marked  significance.  Doctrines  not  only  come 
after  doctrines,  but  the  subsequent  doctrines  are 
built  upon  the  preceding.  It  might  be  said,  the 
later  are  unfolded  from  the  earlier.  Each 
strengthens  the  proof  of  the  preceding,  and  each 
when  accepted  becomes  a  fresh  starting-point  for 
the  development  of  all  that  follow.  There  is 
therefore  a  genuine  evolution  of  doctrine  out  of 
doctrine,  and  of  all  the  doctrines  out  of  life.  The- 
ology leads  to  Christology,  Christology  to  An- 
thropology, and  Anthropology  to  Soteriology,  as 
each  becomes  a  living  question  to  the  living 
church. 

How  now  are  the  utterances  of  "  Christian  ex- 
perience "  to  be  derived  from  such  a  history  ? 
Precisely  speaking,  we  get  here,  of  course.  Chris- 
tian convictions,  the  products  of  experience  in  va- 
rying degrees  and  ways,  and  not  the  experience 


Christian  Experience  115 

itself.  Some  of  these  convictions  are  derivable 
by  very  short  processes  from  veritable  experi- 
ences, while  others  require  longer  trains  of  rea- 
soning, and  are  therefore  less  certain.  They  are, 
however,  the  verdict  of  Christians  in  general  on 
the  points  touched,  and  thus  the  final  testimony  of 
the  general  church  as  to  Christian  truth,  com- 
pounded of  immediate  experiences,  of  the  rea- 
sonable explanation  of  perceived  facts,  of  the  log- 
ical adjustment  of  differing  ideas,  and  of  the  re- 
sult of  experiment  with  supposed  truth.  And 
when  we  distinguish  between  the  various  convic- 
tions which  we  find  recorded  in  history,  when  we 
ask  for  that  verdict  which  has  Christian  history 
for  it,  and  which  may  therefore  be  called  the  true 
historical  verdict  of  Christendom,  we  are  asking 
for  the  legitimate  outcome  of  the  historical  de- 
velopment. 

We  must,  therefore,  ask  at  some  point  before 
we  begin  to  make  use  of  Christian  history  as  a 
source  of  information  as  to  experience,  what  are 
the  criteria  of  a  sound  historical  development? 
Cardinal  Newman,  who  sought  in  his  famous 
book  upon  "  The  Development  of  Christian  Doc- 
trine "  to  use  the  idea  of  development  in  defence 
of  the  dogmas  of  the  Roman  church^,  propound- 
ed seven  criteria :  First,  preservation  of  the  type, 
as  a  child  develops  into  a  man,  and  not  into  some 
animal ;  second,  continuity  of  principle,  by  which 

*  I  here  repeat  a  few  sentences  from  "  Fundamental 
Ideas  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  ",  p.  233  ff. 


1 1 6        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

is  meant  some  determinative  idea,  such  as  the 
principle  of  private  judgment  in  Protestantism; 
third,  power  of  assimilation,  or,  as  it  might  be 
stated,  adaptability  to  and  harmony  with  other 
truth ;  fourth,  logical  sequence ;  fifth,  anticipation 
of  the  future,  or  the  fact  that  hints  of  an  idea  to 
be  fully  developed  later  will  be  likely  to  be  found 
at  an  early  point ;  sixth,  conservative  action  upon 
the  past;  seventh,  chronic  vigor,  or,  in  simpler 
phrase,  duration,  the  power  of  survival.  With 
all  the  Cardinal's  real  abuse  of  these  canons  in 
his  practical  application  of  them  to  the  various 
Roman  dogmas,  they  are  well  conceived  and  af- 
ford a  sufficient  means  of  deciding  on  the  "  his- 
torical verdict "  upon  any  point  of  doctrinal  in- 
quiry. But  they  may  be  more  conveniently  sta- 
ted thus :  first,  the  development  must  begin  from 
a  germ  actually  present  in  the  recorded  instruc- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles;  second,  it 
must  proceed  according  to  the  laws  of  logical  se- 
quence; third,  it  must  agree  with  other  estab- 
lished Christian  doctrines  (assimilation)  ;  fourth, 
its  developed  form  must  agree  with  its  original  in 
substance  and  vital  portion  (conservation  of  the 
past),  or,  it  must  not  contradict  sound  biblical 
exegesis. 

First,  the  development  must  begin  from  a  germ 
actually  present  in  the  recorded  instructions  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles.  This  is  more  than 
a  merely  historical  canon,  like  that  of  Ritschl  al- 
ready reviewed.     It  would  have  a  sufficient  justi- 


Christian  Experience  117 

fication  in  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  an  histori- 
cal religion,  if  we  were  engaged  in  a  simple  his- 
torical investigation.  But  we  are  now  seeking 
truth,  and  must  admit,  for  argument's  sake,  at 
least,  that  there  may  have  entered  in  elements  of 
error  into  the  edifice  of  truth,  and  that  it  is  con- 
ceivable that  this  should  have  happened  at  the  be- 
ginning. It  is  therefore  necessary  to  observe  that 
this  canon  for  the  determination  of  experience  is 
substantiated  by  the  results  already  derived  from 
experience.  The  recognition  of  the  divine  ori- 
gin of  the  Bible  through  the  "  testimony  of  the 
Spirit "  affords  a  broad  basis  for  the  assumption 
that  there  will  be  nothing  vital  to  Christianity 
omitted  from  its  formative  beginning.  Were 
Christianity  not  a  divine  product  in  the  believer's 
experience,  and  did  he  not  see  evidence  of  the 
divine  presence  in  the  Bible  itself,  had  he  no  rea- 
son for  going  on  thence  to  the  larger  recognition 
of  the  divine  presence  in  Christian  history  where- 
by all  its  course  must  be  conceived  as  proceeding 
under  the  guiding  and  over-ruling  providence  of 
God,  then  he  might  say  that  essential  elements 
were  lacking  in  its  first  period.  Even  then,  as 
there  was  true  revelation  to  Israel  before  the  ad- 
vent of  Christ  which  was  only  partial,  it  might  be 
conceived  that  new  and  vital  elements  were  su- 
peradded to  the  New  Testament  doctrine,  as  this 
was  superimposed  ort  that  of  the  Old  Testament, 
if  there  were  any  books  subsequent  to  the  Bible 
which  received  the  same  "  testimony  ".     But  the 


Ii8  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
Bible  remains  unique.  Whatever  other  books 
later  than  it  receive  the  parallel  testimony,  as  Lu- 
ther's Commentary  on  the  Galatians  certainly 
does,  that  it  was  produced  in  a  mind  moved  by 
God,  and  so  is  in  a  measure  a  word  of  God,  they 
are  all  manifestly  dependent  upon  the  Bible,  as, 
in  the  example  chosen,  commentary  is  dependent 
upon  text,  or  as  a  stream  is  dependent  upon  the 
fountain  from  which  it  proceeds.  The  Bible 
alone  receives  the  full  force  of  this  testimony ;  and 
it  alone  is  the  word  of  God.  As  such  it  can  give 
valid  elements  of  Christian  experience  for  our 
inquiry,  and  none  not  derivable  from  it  in  some 
sense,  having  not  even  a  germ  or  suggestion  to 
present  in  its  behalf  from  the  Bible,  has  any 
prima  facie  evidence  in  its  favor.  Rather,  the 
prima  facie  case  is  against  it,  and  it  must  bring 
from  some  other  quarter  more  abundant  and  co- 
gent reasons,  if  it  can,  before  the  cautious  en- 
quirer, bent  on  establishing  every  position  firmly 
before  advancing  to  others,  could  justify  himself 
in  reckoning  it  among  the  utterances  of  the  uni- 
versal Christian  experience. 

The  second  canon  is  that  the  development  must 
proceed  according  to  the  laws  of  logical  sequence. 
The  more  fundamental  positions  must  be  estab- 
lished before  those  which  are  built  upon  them, 
the  trinity  following  the  establishment  of  one  su- 
preme God,  and  Christology  following  the  Trini- 
ty, not  the  reverse.  The  proofs  for  the  accepted 
doctrines  must  possess  a  universal  validity  and 


Christian  Experience  119 

be  as  cogent  to-day  as  at  the  beginning.  Not 
that  the  full  argument  for  every  doctrinal  posi- 
tion should  have  been  advanced  or  even  com- 
prehended at  the  beginning,  nor  the  ancient  argu- 
ments be  incapable  of  better  statement  now,  or  of 
receiving  supplementation,  or  entirely  new  ele- 
ments ;  but  that  soundness  and  convincing  power 
must  attend  the  process  and  abide  with  the  result. 
The  third  canon  demands  that  every  new  doctrine 
should  agree  with  every  old ;  or  that  the  process 
should  have  that  mark  of  truth  which  lies  in  inner 
consistency.  It  seeks  in  other  words  to  empha- 
size the  ultimate  criterion  by  which  we  know  all 
truth;  for,  ultimately,  truth  is  harmony,  consis- 
tency, a  coherent  system  of  ideas.  The  fourth 
canon  is  that  the  developed  form  of  a  doctrine 
must  agree  with  its  original  form  in  substance 
and  vital  portion.  The  form  may  change,  or  a 
logical  form  may  develop  from  the  formless  sug- 
gestions of  earlier  times,  but  in  substance  there 
can  be  no  change.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
for  example,  could  not  be  regarded  as  a  legiti- 
mate development  of  Christian  thinking  if  its 
vital  substance  were  as  absent  from  the  New  Tes- 
tament as  is  the  technical  word  "  consubstantial- 
ity  "  by  which  its  central  definition  is  expressed. 
It  did  undoubtedly  come  to  many  a  reflective 
Christian  as  something  quite  new,  when  the  re- 
sult of  the  Council  of  Nice  was  communicated  to 
him,  and  required  an  elaborate  explanation  be- 
fore he  could  understand  it.     It  gained  its  con- 


l!20        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

vincing  proof  when  it  was  seen  to  explain  such 
texts  as  "  The  Word  was  God ;"  and  had  it  been 
against  the  general  drift  and  total  final  impres- 
sion of  the  New  Testament,  not  all  the  councils 
which  have  been  held  since  could  have  legitimated 
it  in  Christian  thinking,  any  more  than  the  Vati- 
can council  has  been  able  to  impose  the  doctrine 
of  papal  infallibility  upon  the  Christian  world. 

With  these  fundamental  canons  one  of  Cardi- 
nal Newman's  suggestions  may  be  associated  as 
helpful.  That  "  chronic  vigor  ",  or  power  of  sur- 
vival, of  which  he  speaks  is  certainly  a  most  im- 
pressive indication  that  any  church  doctrine  ex- 
presses the  mind  of  the  Spirit.  If  the  Christian 
who  has  duly  analyzed  his  own  experiences  need- 
ed any  further  proof  of  the  prevenience  of  con- 
verting divine  grace,  the  survival  of  the  doctrine 
after  eighteen  centuries  of  discussion,  formal  and 
informal,  would  be  its  sufficient  confirmation. 
Found  implicitly  contained  in  the  whole  piety  of 
the  ancient  church  by  which  they  commended  all 
their  labor  for  souls  to  the  blessing  of  God,  it 
met  its  first  shock  of  declared  contradiction  when 
Pelagius  came  to  Rome  and  began  to  propound, 
as  early  as  405,  his  denial  of  the  necessity  of  su- 
pernatural grace  to  any  true  service  on  the  part 
of  man  to  God,  and  of  the  transmission  of  a  fault 
or  corruption  of  nature.  The  contest,  which  Au- 
gustine took  up,  was  severe,  but  in  spite  of  the 
vagueness  with  which  the  Orientals  expressed 
themselves,  it  terminated  in  the  general  acknowl- 


Christian  Experience  121 

edgment  of  prevenient  grace.  Then  came  the 
pelagianizing  era  of  the  Roman  church,  against 
which  the  Reformation  was  a  protest,  by  which 
natural  corruption  and  prevenient  grace  were 
placed  again  among  the  great  essentials  of  the 
Christian  scheme  of  the  world  and  of  salvation, 
although  the  pelagianizing  tendency  reappeared 
among  the  Protestants  themselves.  In  our  own 
countr)^  we  had  the  same  issue  raised  in  the  early 
years  of  the  present  century,  in  the  Unitarian 
controversy  of  New  England,  which  had  its  root 
not  in  the  doctrine  of  the  abstract  simplicity  of 
the  divine  nature,  but  in  views  of  the  dignity  of 
man  and  of  the  nature  of  regeneration  which 
were  nothing  but  a  revivified  Pelagianism;  and 
again,  the  aggressive,  evangelizing  church  of 
Christ  rejected  the  proposed  modifications  of  doc- 
trine and  reaffirmed  the  depravity  of  man  and  the 
necessity  of  regenerating  grace.  Many  other  ex- 
amples might  be  mentioned,  with  the  same  out- 
come. A  doctrine  thus  possessed  of  the  power  of 
survival,  thus  reappearing  at  different  epochs  of 
the  church,  thus  associating  itself  with  forward 
movements  of  aggressive  Christian  power  and  al- 
lying itself  with  other  elements  of  the  gospel  to 
produce  strong  Christian  effects,  has  for  it  the 
repeated,  the  deliberate,  the  permanent  voice  of 
Christian  conviction  that  it  is,  in  fact,  the  truth 
of  God.  Few  minds  are  so  constituted  as  to  deny 
the  proving  cogency  of  such  a  consideration. 
Prof.  F.  H.  Giddings  has  some  suggestions  as 


122        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

to  the  place  of  survival  in  the  sociological  pro- 
cess which,  with  modifications,  may  illuminate  the 
idea  of  survival  as  a  criterion  of  theological  truth. 
He  says^ : — 

"  The  science  of  ethics  examines  critically  the 
elements  that  enter  into  the  conception  of  good- 
ness, and  the  criteria  that  are  applied  to  experi- 
ences, objects,  actions,  and  relations,  in  order  that 
it  may  arrive  at  a  true  notion  of  the  ideal  good. 
Sociology  must  examine  them  historically  and  in- 
ductively,— in  their  evolutionary  aspect, — as  a 
part  of  its  study  of  social  choice. 

"  Elements  and  criteria  of  the  ideal  good  are  of 
two  widely  contrasted  kinds.  Some  are  subjec- 
tive ;  they  are  states  of  mind  or  qualities  of  con- 
duct or  character  that  are  regarded  as  inherently 
excellent.  Others  are  objective;  they  are  rela- 
tions of  adaptation  to  an  external  world.  Pleas- 
ure, for  example,  is  a  subjective  element  of  the 
ideal  good ;  survival  is  an  objective  criterion.  .  .  . 

"  The  present  social  arrangements  are  survi- 
vals. Thousands  of  different  arrangements  have 
disappeared  because  their  usefulness  to  men  was 
transient  or  slight.  They  did  not  profit  the  tribes 
or  peoples  that  used  then  sufficiently  to  save  either 
peoples  or  institutions  from  extinction.  The  so- 
cial arrangements  that  live  as  a  part  of  the  life  of 
virile  communities  are  arrangements  that  make 
communities  virile.  Directly  or  indirectly  they 
help  to  make  a  better  social  man,  keener  in  mind 

*"  Principles  of  Sociology,"  pp.  403  ff. 


Christian  Experience  123 

and  more  adept  in  co-operation.  But  among  all 
possible  social  choices  in  law  and  institution  mak- 
ing, which  will  bring  these  results?  What 
choices,  merely  as  choices,  will  natural  selection 
prefer  ? 

"  The  answer  that  sociology  gives  is  very  cer- 
tain. The  law  is  unmistakable.  Those  subjec- 
tive values  will  survive  which  are  component 
parts  in  a  total  or  whole  of  subjective  values  that 
is  becoming  ever  more  complex  through  the  in- 
clusion of  new  interests,  and  at  the  same  time 
more  thoroughly  harmonious  and  coherent." 

In  analogy  with  this  it  may  be  said  that  under 
the  providence  of  God  the  doctrines  of  the  evan- 
gelical system  are  survivals;  that  they  have  sur- 
vived in  the  estimation  and  belief  of  the  church 
because  they  have  been  found  by  successive  gen- 
erations of  Christians  to  contribute  to  the  most 
vigorous  Christian  life;  and  that  they  are  com- 
ponent parts  in  a  whole  that  is  becoming  ever 
more  complex  through  the  inclusion  of  new  doc- 
trines, and  at  the  same  time  more  thoroughly  har- 
monious and  coherent.  Their  mere  survival  is  a 
proof  of  their  truth,  as  social  survival  is  a  proof 
of  social  normality;  and  they  tend  ever  to  form 
a  definite  and  articulated  system. 

One  cannot  be  surprised  that  the  thought  of  a 
magnificent  system  of  truth  developing  through 
the  ages  should  have  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  the  mind  of  one  who,  like  Cardinal  New- 
man, was  keenly  susceptible  to  impressions  of 


124        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

beauty  and  grandeur,  even  if  too  imaginative  and 
idealizing  in  his  tendencies  to  form  accurate  and 
reliable  judgments  upon  delicate  and  profound 
questions  of  doctrine.  As  the  cathedral  grows 
through  the  centuries,  built  by  successive  genera- 
tions of  workmen  from  plans  prepared  by  an  un- 
known architect,  each  group  of  workmen  adding 
something  to  the  rising  walls,  or  erecting  some 
new  row  of  columns,  or  elaborating  the  carving 
of  capitals  and  stalls  and  screens,  or  stretching 
up  buttresses  and  arches  towards  the  stone  fir- 
mament above,  or  building  lantern  and  tower  and 
spire  piercing  heaven  with  its  tracery  of  petrified 
lace;  so  has  the  edifice  of  Christian  doctrine 
grown.  It  has  fetched  its  materials  from  distant 
quarries  of  the  mind  where  obscure  delvers  have 
prepared  materials  they  knew  not  for  what ;  it  has 
stirred  the  profound  interest  and  secured  the  de- 
voted labors  of  the  princes  of  human  thought; 
men  have  gladly  perished  that  they  might  place 
in  its  walls  what  they  deemed  some  specially  rare 
and  beautiful  stones  of  truth  or  add  to  its  adorn- 
ment some  blazing  window  of  illuminating  argu- 
ment ;  the  plan  has  been  forgotten,  and  barbarous 
hands  have  made  unhallowed  additions,  which 
better  instructed  laborers  have  torn  away  and  re- 
placed with  the  original  designs  of  the  architect ; 
silence  and  forgetfulness  have  supervened  for 
centuries  of  ignorance  and  decay;  but,  in  it  all, 
under  an  unseen  guidance,  after  the  plans  of  the 
Master  Builder,  it  has  been  rising,  expanding, 


Christian  Experience  125 

beautifying,  ennobling,  till  at  last  it  stands  beside 
the  ancient,  historic  river  of  God's  ever-flowing 
grace,  a  temple  fit  for  the  habitation  of  God 
through  his  Spirit.  It  is  not  strange  that  men 
worshiping  in  it  and  forming  sacred  associations 
with  every  feature  of  it,  finding  this  chapel  the 
fit  place  for  consolation  in  some  great  affliction, 
that  tower  the  eminence  from  which  some  view 
of  distant  peaks  and  mountain  ranges  of  divine 
providence  can  be  gained,  hearing  nothing  but 
God's  praises  in  its  choir,  and  truth  proclaimed 
from  its  pulpits,  should  ascribe  to  it  something  of 
the  perfection  of  God  himself.  It  has  that  per- 
fection; and  yet  it  is  built,  like  the  cathedral,  of 
the  stone,  wood,  and  iron  of  human  conceptions 
and  human  limitations.  The  divine  is  in  it;  but 
it  is  not  itself  divine. 

Against  this  view,  however,  the  school  of 
Ritschl  has  made  strenuous  objection.  Theolo- 
gians who  hold  it  have  been  called  "  romancers  " 
by  Harnack,  by  which  he  apparently  meant  to 
imply  that  they  were  indebted  to  their  imagina- 
tions for  their  theories  if  not  for  their  facts.  With 
whatever  modifications  here  and  there,  the  gen- 
eral impression  given  by  Ritschl  and  his  col- 
leagues in  the  movement  he  initiated  as  to  the 
early  history  of  the  church,  doctrinal  or  practical, 
is  that  it  was  a  period  of  gross  corruption,  that 
its  good  was  almost  hidden  beneath  its  evil,  and 
that  the  church  lost  its  deposit  of  truth  in  conflict 


126        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

with' the  errors  of  the  time,  which  speedily  con- 
quered it,  "  Hellenized  "  it,  and  converted  it  into 
that  great  system  of  mediaeval  error  from  which 
Luther  scarcely  rescued  it.  Thus  these  theolo- 
gians are  by  no  means  indifferent  to  church  his- 
tory as  a  source  of  instruction  as  to  Christian 
doctrine.  Ritschl  gained  his  earliest  and  some  of 
his  most  abundant  laurels  in  this  field.  Harnack 
stands  confessedly  at  the  apex  of  German  histori- 
cal scholarship  to-day.  Nothing  has  ever  been 
written  in  the  department  of  doctrinal  history 
more  learned,  original,  thorough,  and  compre- 
hensive, than  Harnack's  "  Dogmengeschichte ". 
But  after  all,  they  exhibit  little  docility  in  their 
use  of  history.  Kaftan,  adopting  the  words  of 
Strauss,  says:  "The  subjective  criticism  of  the 
individual  is  like  the  aqueduct  that  any  boy  can 
stop  for  a  time,  but  the  criticism  which  gradually 
gathers  in  the  course  of  centuries  is  a  roaring  tor- 
rent against  which  no  gates  or  dams  avail 
anything."  And  compressing  into  a  single  sen- 
tence the  criticism  of  the  school  upon  the  view  of 
history  which  I  have  presented  above,  Kaftan 
first  defines  the  view  thus :  "  That  the  dogma  of 
the  church  has  been  formed  under  the  guidance  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  necessary,  and  in  the  main 
the  permanent  and  standard  expression  of  Chris- 
tian truth ;  "  and  then  adds :  "  That  is  Roman 
Catholicism."^  As  the  latest  criticism  of  our  po- 
sition, and  by  the  most  influential  school  of  dis- 

*  Compare  the  "Wahrheit",  pp.  234  if. 


Christian  Experience  127 

tinctively  modern  thought,  the  objection  demands 
our  consideration.  It  may  demand  this  the  more 
because  we  have  given  essential  approval  to  the 
historical  canons  of  a  Roman  Catholic,  Cardinal 
Newman. 

Yet  it  may  be  well  to  lay  upon  ourselves  injunc- 
tion against  haste  in  interpreting  or  answering 
Kaftan,  for  he  may  not  have  meant  all  that  he  at 
first  seems  to  mean.  Selecting  our  steps,  there- 
fore, carefully,  we  note  that  his  opposition  to  the 
view  begins  with  his  conception  of  the  influence 
of  Greek  thought  in  emphasizing  the  intellectual, 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  practical  element  of  theol- 
ogy. The  theological  center  of  gravity,  accord- 
ing to  the  Greeks,  was  in  the  intellectual  form  of 
truth,  while  pure  Christianity  placed  it  in  the 
obedience  of  the  heart.  We  have  already  dis- 
cussed this  point  of  objection  at  length,  and  while 
agreeing  with  Kaftan  in  the  relative  importance 
of  the  two  elements,  we  cannot  follow  him  in  his 
complete  rejection  of  knowledge  as  a  legitimate 
object  of  theological  search. 

But,  this  point  aside,  Kaftan  continues  that  the 
church  dogma,  as  every  one  now  confesses,  can- 
not be  found  in  the  Scriptures  in  the  form  in 
which  it  is  expressed  in  the  creeds.  It  can  be  re- 
garded at  best  only  as  the  necessary  continuation 
of  the  initial  elements  found  in  the  Scriptures. 
The  objection  to  that  would  be  that  the  Bible 
thereby  becomes  merely  the  first  link  in  the  chain 
of  development,  no  longer  being  the  source  and 


128        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

standard  of  theology.  But  not  so  much  as  this, 
he  says,  can  be  granted  to  the  historians.  The 
tendency  of  the  thought  in  the  Bible  is  entirely 
different  from  that  of  the  church  dogma.  The 
contents  are  also  different;  and  to  bring  dogma 
and  Bible  into  harmony  it  is  necessary  to  inter- 
pret Bible  by  the  dogma,  having  first  ascribed  to 
the  latter  a  supernatural  character  and  origin, — 
and  that  is  Catholicism. 

Some  degree  of  justification  to  this  objection 
we  are  prepared  at  once  to  admit.  It  is  right  to 
bring  every  dogma  as  rigidly  to  the  test  of  the 
Bible  as  if  there  were  no  historical  development ; 
for  this  is  our  first  canon,  that  the  doctrine  must 
originate  in  a  New  Testament  germ,  and  our 
fourth,  that  it  must  agree  with  the  New  Testa- 
ment origin.  It  is  true  also  that  there  is  a  point 
in  the  development  of  dogma  where  Romanizing 
influences  begin,  and  that  the  system  of  the  pres- 
ent church  of  Rome  can  only  be  justified  by  as- 
suming that  it  was  complete  substantially  in  its 
present  form  at  the  beginning,  and  interpreting 
that  beginning  in  the  light  of  the  end.^  But 
whether  that  is  true  of  the  whole  system  of  dog- 
ma, including  those  positions  which  the  Protes- 
tant churches  have  taken  up  into  their  system,  is 
a  possible  question,  to  which,  for  our  part,  we 
answer.  No !     Of  this  more  later. 

*  For  fuller  illustrations  of  this  point,  I  may  refer  to 
the  "  Fundamental  Ideas  of  the  R.  C.  Church  ",  pp.  55, 
308,  329,  352. 


Christian  Experience  129 

We  shall  do  better  if  we  follow  from  this  point 
Kaftan's  own  personal  view.  Two  things,  he 
says,'  are  to  be  kept  in  mind  in  any  historical  in- 
vestigation, first,  the  leading  thought,  the  princi- 
ple of  the  development,  second,  the  historical 
facts.  "  In  general  terms,  this  leading  thought 
can  be  nothing  but  belief  in  the  government  of 
the  divine  Spirit  in  the  church,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Christendom.  No  other  view  would  do 
justice  to  the  general  relations  of  the  Christian 

faith  and  the  Christian  theology But  our 

view  of  this  development  must  be  further  deter- 
mined by  the  specifically  Christian  faith  in  revela- 
tion; and,  as  revelation  came  into  being  in  a  cer- 
tain way,  so  must  the  further  divine  guidance  of 
history  be  understood  in  the  same  way."  And 
particularly,  "  the  divine  revelation  [through  his- 
tory] in  the  world  can  only  be  made  in  constant 
struggle  with  human  weakness  and  perversion; 
there  must  come  real  catastrophes;  it  cannot  be 
made  in  the  form  of  a  regular  development,  in  a 
straight  line,  but  only  as  a  movement  advancing 
by  successive  steps ".  There  is  the  Israelitish 
Exile,  the  tragedy  of  Calvary,  etc.  Hence,  while 
we  believe  firmly  in  the  divine  guidance  in  all  the 
development  of  the  church,  "  we  cannot  expect 
that  there  will  be  continuously  pure,  unmingled 
results  in  any  department,  not  even  in  that  of 
doctrine,  designed  to  be  esteemed  permanently  as 
possessing  divine  authority  ".     History  will  be  a 

^"Wahrheit",  p.  249  ff- 


130        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

"  continuation  of  the  divine  revelation  "  [this  in 
the  sense  of  a  continued  contact  between  God  and 
his  people  through  the  Holy  Spirit]  ;  but  "  not  in 
the  sense  that  the  perfect  revelation  [in  Christ] 
will  ever  be  surpassed,  or  ever  cease  to  be  the 
pure  norm  of  everything  later". 

With  this  "  leading  thought "  most  of  us,  I 
suppose,  certainly  I  myself,  for  one,  can  be  per- 
fectly content.  It  is  precisely  what  we  ourselves 
mean  when  we  affirm  that  there  is  normal  and 
abnormal  development  in  history  and  that  all  is  to 
be  subjected  to  criticism  according  to  certain 
canons.  Kaftan  here,  as  in  many  places,  marks 
the  gain  which  has  been  made  by  the  Ritschlian 
school  over  the  extremes  exhibited  by  Ritschl 
himself  and  by  Harnack.  The  best  refutation  of 
original  Ritschlianism  is  this  modified,  present- 
day  Ritschlianism. 

When  he  comes  to  the  second  thing  to  which 
particular  attention  was  to  be  paid,  the  historical 
facts,  it  is  evident  that  if  Kaftan  accepted  the 
church  dogma  of  the  "  two  natures  in  the  one 
person  of  Christ ",  for  example,  as  biblical  and 
correct,  he  would  feel  differently  at  that  point  in 
respect  to  the  value  of  the  historical  development. 
We  may  pass  this  particular  for  the  present, 
since  we  shall  be  brought  back  to  it  in  the  prog- 
ress of  our  study  when  we  come  to  the  teachings 
of  experience  as  to  the  person  of  Christ.  The 
main,  and  at  all  events  the  most  striking,  "  fact " 
to  which  he  calls  attention  is  the  fact  of  German 


Christian  Experience  131 

rationalism  in  the  last  century,  which  he  declares 
followed  the  method  of  Protestant  dogmatics,  and 
really  destroyed  the  system,  not  however  its 
Christian  but  its  Catholic  elements,  for  it  was  still 
Catholic  in  its  method.  Here  we  meet  again  the 
doctrine  of  "  knowledge  ",  of  which  enough  has 
been  said  above. 

Our  contention  with  Kaftan  is  therefore  not 
over  his  principles  of  interpreting  history  but 
over  the  details  of  judgment  as  to  definite  points. 
But  he  may  well  teach  us  to  be  careful  and  bibli- 
cal in  such  criticism,  and  to  hold  ourselves  ever 
ready  to  reject  or  amend  whatever  we  do  not  find 
"  in  accord  with  the  beginning  of  Christian  his- 
tory, with  the  New  Testament  ".  Under  his  forms 
of  statement  the  Ritschlian  criticism  becomes  a 
confirmation  of  our  position.  Christian  history 
can  teach  us  much.  It  often  presents  the  results 
of  the  most  careful  and  prolonged  study  of  the 
truth.  It  has  repeatedly  passed  such  a  judgment 
upon  truths  that  they  may  be  said  to  have  in  their 
favor  the  combined  verdict  of  Christians,  the 
voice  of  general  Christian  experience.  When 
this  is  so,  the  truths  in  question  are  not  demon- 
strated thereby,  or  proved  independently  of  ques- 
tions of  exegesis,  or  rendered  infallibly  certain; 
but,  only,  they  have  gained  one  argument,  and 
that  an  important  one,  in  their  favor.  The  Chris- 
tian cathedral  of  doctrine  is  a  temple  of  God  and 
a  structure  of  his  own  building,  though  by  means 
of  human  hands  and  with  many  a  resulting  im- 


132        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

perfection.  Its  great  elements  are  not  errors, 
nor  as  Kaftan  implies,  too  exclusively  formed 
under  the  influence  of  an  abnormal  thirst  for  an 
unobtainable  and  undesirable  "  knowledge  ",  but 
were  formed  by  the  heart  as  well  as  the  head  of 
the  church,  and  are  found  sustained  by  the  voice 
of  a  universal  Christian  experience,  ancient,  it  is 
true,  but  also  modern  and,  we  believe,  destined 
to  endure  forever. 


LECTURE  IV 

THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST 

In  the  analysis  of  Christian  experience  we  have 
hitherto  moved  somewhat  in  the  realm  of  ab- 
stractions. For  the  sake  of  sharpness  of  analysis 
and  independence  of  treatment  we  have  defined 
the  ultimate  Christian  fact  of  experience,  the  new 
birth,  as  the  supreme  choice  of  duty.  It  is  thus 
an  act  of  allegiance  to  the  abstract  right.  From 
the  point  of  theory  it  may  be  thus  defined;  but 
practically  it  seldom,  and  among  such  a  group  of 
Christians  as  this  is,  perhaps  never,  assumes  so 
abstract  a  form.  It  is  a  most  concrete  act  for  the 
generality  of  Christians.  It  is  faith,  rather  than 
mere  naked  choice,  faith  in  a  person,  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  tender  of  allegiance  to  him 
as  personal  King,  Example,  and  Guide,  yes,  as 
infinite  Benefactor  to  the  soul.  Our  abstract  dis- 
cussion has  had  the  advantage  of  advancing  from 
the  simplest  facts  of  our  experience  to  sound  and 
unquestionable  positions  which  supply  us  a  firm 
basis  for  our  subsequent  inquiries ;  but  we  should 
fail  to  reap  fully  the  advantage  thus  gained,  did 
133 


134        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

we  not  now  leave  the  abstract,  and  begin  the 
study  of  the  concrete,  the  real  forms  of  Christian 
experience.  And  as  that  ultimate  act  of  choice 
is  in  its  concrete  form  the  definite  choice  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  King,  we  must  begin  with  the  inquiry 
what  experience  has  to  teach  us  as  to  Christ. 

The  Apostle  Paul  determined  not  to  know 
"  anything  "  among  the  Corinthians  "  save  Jesus 
Christ  and  him  crucified."  Christian  preaching 
has  been  since  that  time  the  preaching  of  the  Re- 
deemer. Not  only  we,  who  sit  here  to-day,  in  this 
far-away  place  and  time,  but  the  listening  crowds 
at  Pentecost,  in  Lystra  and  Derbe,  at  Philippi, 
Corinth,  Rome,  by  the  Rhone,  in  the  forests  of 
Germany,  and  over  the  plains  of  Britain,  all  first 
heard  of  God  as  he  was  revealed  in  Christ,  of  the 
divine  Father  who  was  such  a  Father  as  was  man- 
ifested in  all  the  doctrine  and  work  of  the  Prophet 
of  Galilee  and  the  Victim  of  Calvary.  Christian 
experience  of  God  is  historically  involved  in  ex- 
perience of  Christ. 

How  comprehensively  this  is  true  is  to  be  seen 
first,  by  a  careful  re-examination  of  the  steps  al- 
ready trodden  in  our  analysis. 

When  those  motives  first  began  to  press  upon 
us  which  led  to  the  surrender  of  ourselves  to  duty, 
they  were  motives  which  proceeded  directly  and 
recognizably  from  Christ.  In  choosing  duty,  we 
chose  him ;  and  the  motives  proceeding  from  the 
idea  of  duty  were  motives  originating  in  him. 
These  motives  were,  first,  the  idea  of  duty  itself ; 


The  Person  of  Christ  135 

but  the  voice  which  quickened  conscience  into  the 
emphatic  assertion  of  obligation  was  that  insist- 
ent preaching  of  obligation  which  began  with 
Jesus'  recognition  of  obligation  for  himself, 
"  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God  and  him 
only  shalt  thou  serve  ".  He  ever  enforced  duty 
by  his  preaching,  from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
"  Love  your  enemies  and  pray  for  them  that  per- 
secute you  ",  to  his  summary  of  all  duty,  quoted 
from  the  ancient  law,  "  Thou  shalt  love  th^e  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself  ".  No  voice  presents  duty  in  more  pun- 
gent phrase  or  exclusive  aspect  than  his,  as  when 
he  said,  "  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more 
than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me.  .  .  .  He  that  doth 
not  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me  is  not  worthy 
of  me  ".  Not  life  itself  is  to  be  preferred  to  the 
new  allegiance,  for  "  he  that  findeth  his  life  " — by 
any  base  denial — "  shall  lose  it  ".  But  the  lesson 
was  taught  more  powerfully  by  his  example  than 
by  his  words.  His  personal  attitude  of  entire 
submission  at  every  point  of  his  career  to  the  will 
of  the  Father  involved  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary, 
"  for  which  cause  he  came  into  the  world  ".  The 
complete  vindication  of  duty's  demands  when  at 
their  hardest  in  the  glorious  outcome  of  his  tri- 
umph by  way  of  the  cross,  so  that  for  every 
Christian  the  via  crucis  has  become  the  via  lucis, 
this  illumination  of  duty  shining  into  the  dark- 
ness of  the  soul's  struggles  and  confusion,  is  that 
which  disclosed  hidden  and  forgotten  duty  and 


136         Christian  Life  and  Theology 

awakened  the  response  of  every  faculty  to  its 
demands. 

But  duty  as  presented  by  Jesus  Christ  was 
neither  abstract  duty  nor  mere  duty.  Fundamen- 
tal duty  is  to  love  God ;  and  God  is  "  our  Father  ". 
The  question  of  duty  begins  to  receive  definite 
contents  of  worship,  submission,  glad  service ;  and 
with  the  perception  of  what  God  is,  as  Jesus 
preaches  him,  the  emotions  are  kindled  as  well  as 
the  mind  informed.  He  is  the  Creator  and  boun- 
tiful Benefactor  from  whom  we  have  received  all 
that  we  have  and  all  that  we  are.  But  he  is  our 
Father ;  and  by  this  phrase,  the  Redeemer,  antic- 
ipating his  own  work  of  propitiation,  and  putting 
himself  in  thought  already  within  that  kingdom 
of  heaven  which  he  came  to  found,  and  which 
without  his  final  sacrifice  could  never  have  en- 
tered in,  declared  God  to  be  already  reconciled 
and  ready  to  receive  the  penitent  sinner  into  the 
infinite  heart  of  his  love.  The  prophetic  words 
of  the  ancient  seer  receive  their  full  meaning  in 
the  preaching  of  Jesus,  "  All  day  have  I  stretched 
forth  my  hands  unto  a  disobedient  and  gainsaying 
people  ".  And,  as  no  man  at  all  stirred  with  a 
sense  of  sin  and  perception  of  his  obligation  to 
God,  can  listen  to  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal 
Son  without  the  deepest  emotions  as  he  hears  the 
father  interrupt  the  son  in  the  midst  of  his  con- 
fession and  thrust  back  unuttered  the  petition  just 
trembHng  on  the  poor  penitent's  lips,  "  Make  me 
as  one  of  thy  hired  servants  ",  with  the  glad  cry, 


The  Person  of  Christ  137 

"  Bring  forth  the  best  robe  and  put  it  on  him  ",  so 
no  awakened  soul  can  listen  to  what  Jesus  here 
and  everywhere  teaches  about  God,  without  the 
most  tender  and  powerful  sense  of  profound  grat- 
itude, drawing  him  towards  the  injured  Father 
who  offers  full  forgiveness  out  of  his  boundless 
and  eternal  goodness.  But  not  even  this  ex- 
hausts the  teaching  of  Christ  as  to  the  Father.  It 
is  the  "  way  of  the  cross  "  which  is  the  way  of 
light".  The  love  of  Christ  himself  is  self-sac- 
rificing, and  it  needs  no  long  argument  to  point 
the  lesson  to  any  man  that  "  greater  love  hath  no 
man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
friends  ".  But  in  this  Christ  shows  us  the  Father. 
If  Christ  so  loved  the  world  as  to  die  for  it,  God 
is  said  by  him  to  have  "  so  loved  the  world  as  to 
send  his  only  Son  " ;  and  in  that  text  the  father 
heart  in  humanity  has  recognized  the  divine  sac- 
rifice in  the  cross.  Nothing  has  been  left  un- 
painted  in  the  picture  of  the  divine  love  which 
could  attract  the  enthusiasm  and  stir  the  grati- 
tude of  the  soul  or  lift  it,  by  the  elevating  force 
of  its  highest  ideals,  towards  complete  self-sur- 
rendering and  self-submitting  worship. 

But  the  catalogue  of  motives  eliciting  the  fun- 
damental act  of  the  soul  is  not  yet  completed. 
Jesus  holds  up  God  before  the  soul  and  most  pow- 
erfully attracts  it  to  him.  He  also  holds  up  sin 
before  it,  and  thus  furnishes  another  group  of 
powerful  motives,  repelling  the  soul  from  evil 
and  so  impelling  it  towards  good.     How  hateful 


138  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
some  ebullition  of  bad  temper  has  appeared  to  any 
of  us  who  may  have  encountered  the  wondering 
and  pained  gaze  of  some  man  whom  we  knew  to 
live  in  the  serene  light  of  a  great  and  deep  love 
for  men !  And  how  have  all  of  us  "  gone  out  and 
wept  bitterly  "  when  in  the  midst  of  our  denials 
we  have  seen  the  Master  "  looking  "  upon  us ! 
The  Pharisee,  as  he  stands  thanking  God  that  he 
is  not  as  other  men  are ;  the  Jews,  as  they  thrust 
light  from  them  and  surround  the  gentle  teacher 
with  the  atmosphere  of  calumny  and  hatred ;  Ju- 
das, as  he  adds  envy  to  avarice,  and  treachery  to 
envy,  and  suicide  to  treachery ;  the  shallow  fields 
which  send  up  thorns  to  choke  the  good  seed ;  the 
niggardly  charity  of  a  Dives  who  has  an  heir  of 
heaven  languishing  unrecognized  at  his  door ;  the 
young  man  who  goes  away  sorrowing;  the  un- 
faithful servants;  the  cruel  husbandmen  who 
would  not  render  the  fruits  of  the  vineyard;  all 
these  show  under  varied  lights  the  meaning  and 
deep  unworthiness  of  what  men  call  peccadillos, 
but  the  voice  of  Jesus  sets  forth  as  sin.  And 
deeper  shadows  fall  upon  it  when  its  end  is  seen, 
when  the  "  worm  that  dieth  not ",  and  the  "  fire 
that  is  not  quenched  '\  when  the  judgment  seat 
with  its  throng  of  flippant  sinners  and  their  self- 
assertive  defence  of  sin,  and  its  "  everlasting " 
punishment  of  those  on  the  left  hand,  when 
"  eternal  death  ",  shroud  it  in  the  darkness  of 
hopeless  and  remediless  ruin. 

In  a  sense,  Christ  is  the  source  of  those  further 


The  Person  of  Christ  139 

motives  to  conversion  which  at  first  seem  to  come 
exclusively  from  our  fellows.  They  have  their 
origin  not  in  "  the  world  ",  but  in  the  world  as  it 
is  already  in  a  degree  the  sphere  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  Historically  they  are  to  be  traced  to 
the  preaching  performed  by  our  Saviour,  since 
they  are  only  possible  in  that  community  which 
has  proceeded  from  his  instructions.  But  it  is 
not  necessary  to  expand  this  thought.  Enough 
has  now  been  said  to  bring  before  us  the  fact  that 
that  whole  assemblage  of  motives  which  led  the 
Christian  to  the  supreme  choice  of  duty,  and 
which,  on  account  of  their  nature  and  the  charac- 
ter of  their  operation  upon  him,  he  is  compelled 
to  ascribe  logically  to  the  Supreme  Personality, 
is  historically  to  be  ascribed  to  Jesus  Christ.  He 
begins  in  the  light  of  this  reflection  to  see  that 
Christ  represents  God  to  him  at  this  most  vital 
point  of  his  experience.  And  this  perception 
suggests  other  thoughts. 

It  is  the  marked  peculiarity  of  Jesus  Christ 
among  the  religious  leaders  of  the  world,  true 
and  false,  to  demand  belief  in  himself.  The 
culmination  of  sin  is  "  to  believe  not  on  him  ". 
That  faith  which  we  are  studying,  and  which  we 
are  bringing  from  the  abstract  sphere  into  the  con- 
crete, is  pre-eminently  faith  in  Jesus  as  a  Saviour. 
Not  his  doctrines,  but  his  person  is  here  meant. 
We  are  to  "  commit  ourselves  to  him  ",  to  take 
his  promise  of  eternal  life  to  those  who  believe 
in  him  as  the  pledge  of  our  salvation,  to  make 


140        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

him  our  King,  to  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of 
our  sins,  to  center  our  service  about  him  as  its 
object.  This  is  the  peculiar  type  of  piety  which 
he  demands  and  which  the  church  has  always 
cherished  from  the  beginning.  In  it  alone  is  to 
be  found  the  full  meaning  of  the  appellation  be- 
stowed upon  the  church  at  Antioch,  of  Chris- 
tians. When,  now,  the  Christian  actually  begins 
the  new  life,  it  is  under  this  form.  He  believes 
in  Christ,  performing  in  this  manner  his  great 
surrender  to  duty.  I  do  not  now  say  that  he 
must,  for  I  am  not  now  in  the  realm  of  theological 
abstractions:  I  simply  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  great  mass  of  people  who  are  called 
Christians  and  who  constitute  what  is  called  the 
church  of  Christ,  in  all  lands  and  in  all  ages, 
the  distinctive  and  ultimate  Christian  act  has 
taken  place  in  this  form.  The  Christian  submits 
himself  to  God  in  Christ,  and  then  something 
wonderful  occurs.  His  trust  is  not  met  by  silence, 
vacancy,  and  irresponsiveness,  plunging  him  into 
the  despair  of  those  who  worshiped  the  dumb 
idols  of  heathenism;  but  to  his  humble  submis- 
sion a  truly  divine  answer  is  given.  From  Christ 
he  actually  receives  those  gifts  which  he  refers 
and  must  refer  to  God,  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins 
and  the  sanctification  of  his  soul.  He  experiences 
upon  this  surrender  as  a  condition,  that  internal 
harmony  of  soul,  which  by  the  process  of  thought 
already  outlined  in  the  second  lecture,  he  rec- 
ognizes as  the  forgiveness  of  God. 


The  Person  of  Christ  141 

Further,  we  obtain,  as  already  noted,  our  clear- 
est and  loftiest  views  of  God  from  the  revelatioii 
made  of  him  by  Christ.  God's  highest  attributes 
are  his  spiritual  attributes,  and  they  all  culminate 
in  his  love.  As  we  receive  the  revelation,  we 
find  that  to  devout  contemplation  those  divine 
attributes  appear  exemplified  in  the  revealer, 
Jesus,  himself.  If  God  is  love,  so  is  Christ;  if 
God  comes  in  condescending  love  to  seek  and 
save  a  race  of  sinners,  Christ  does  precisely  this : 
If  God  is  long-suffering,  if  he  hates  iniquity  and 
avenges  the  oppressed,  so  does  Christ;  if  he  is 
our  Judge,  so  is  Christ ;  if  God  is  a  tender  friend, 
the  most  loving  accents  which  ever  fell  from 
human  lips  were  spoken  by  him  who  washed  the 
feet  of  the  disciples  and  called  them  his  friends ; 
if  God  is  perfect  holiness,  so  that  the  highest  ideal 
of  the  mind  only  faintly  reflects  his  excellence, 
so  is  Christ,  the  perfections  of  whose  character 
have  remained  the  unsurpassed  ideal  of  human- 
ity. Whatever  view  we  form  of  God  in  the 
sphere  of  moral  attributes,  Christ  is  the  living 
exemplification  of  it,  so  that  humanity  has  found 
what  Christ  himself  said  to  be  the  unexhausted 
and  inexhaustible  fact  of  the  Christian  centuries, 
that  "he  who  hath  seen  him,  hath  seen  the  Fa- 
ther ". 

Thus  Christ  is  for  the  Christian,  that  is,  in 
his  experience,  God.  From  Christ  there  come  to 
him  what  he  recognizes  as  the  influences  of  God, 
the  controlling  influences  which  have  led  him  to 


142        Chsritian  Life  and  Theology 

the  loftiest  act  which  any  mortal  can  perform. 
And  when  he  looks  for  the  source  of  the  great- 
est gifts  which  he  has  received,  of  the  greatest 
any  created  spirit  can  receive,  and  which,  again, 
he  ascribes  to  God,  he  beholds  that  source  in 
Christ.  All  that  he  knows  of  God  he  knows 
through  the  ministering  of  Christ.  Christ  identi- 
fies himself  to  the  Christian  with  God  by  being 
and  doing  what  God  is  and  does. 

I  state  this  positively  as  Christian  experience. 
Every  one  of  you  must  test  it  by  your  own  ex- 
perience. If  you  have  come  to  God  by  some 
other  path;  if  you  find  Christ  unable  to  confer 
salvation  upon  you ;  if  you  have  an  ideal  of  excel- 
lence higher  than  that  which  he  taught  and  was  • 
then  the  proof  avails  nothing  for  you.  But  even 
then  you  will  find  instruction  in  the  fact  that  uni- 
versal Christian  experience  speaks  for  the  deity 
of  Christ.  You  may  both  test  and  enrich  your 
own  experience  by  tracing  this  larger  experience. 

For  the  universal  Christian  experience  we 
turn,  first,  to  the  New  Testament.  Two  of  its 
writers  represent  in  an  especial  degree  the  the- 
ology of  experience,  John  and  Paul,  and  to  them 
we  shall  direct  our  chief  attention,  while  not 
neglecting  others.  John  begins  his  first  epistle, 
which  must  be  our  principal  authority  for  his  ex- 
perience, since  it  is  not  occupied,  as  is  the  gospel, 
in  recording  events  and  reporting  the  teachings 
of  the  Master,  but  with  the  independent  expres- 
sion of  his  own  thoughts, — he  begins  this  epistle 


The  Person  of  Christ  143 

by  emphasizing  the  fact  of  his  own  personal 
knowledge  of  Christ.  "  That  which  we  have  seen 
with  our  eyes,  that  which  we  beheld,  and  our 
hands  handled,  concerning  the  Word  of  life,"  it 
is  his  object  to  declare.  All  that  he  says  is  thus 
founded  on  personal  experience.  As  we  read 
the  pages  of  the  epistle  one  after  another,  we  can- 
not fail  to  find  the  constant  evidence  of  experi- 
ential knowledge.  All  the  forms  in  which 
Christ  appears  before  the  converting  sinner  and 
exerts  divine  influence  upon  him,  are  indicated 
here.  It  was  from  Christ  that  the  disciple  heard 
that  God  was  "  light ",  convincing  of  sin  by  the 
contrast  of  men's  lives  with  him  in  whom  was 
"  no  darkness  at  all ".  The  ideal  of  perfect 
purity  was  conveyed  to  him  by  Christ;^  and  the 
revelation  of  the  love  of  God,  which  was  a  con- 
stant wonder  to  the  apostle,^  was  made  in  the 
hour  when  Jesus  "  laid  down  his  life  for  us  ", 
for  then  God  "  manifested  "  his  love,  and  indeed 
declared  it  to  be  his  nature, — "  for  God  is  love  ", 
— a  love  which  anticipated  our  love,  for  we,  im- 
mersed in  sins,  "  did  not  love  God,  but  he  loved 
us  and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propriation  for  our 
sins  ".  When  Jesus  made  those  astonishing  ex- 
clusive claims  for  himself  which  are  reported  by 
all  the  evangelists,^  by  which  he  identified  the 

*l  Jn.  iii.  3,  "iKEivo^r 
*i  Jn.   iii.   I,  ''itotait-nvy 

"Cf.  with  Jn.  iii.  t8  and  xvi.  9,  Matt.  x.  32,  33,  37" 
39.    Mk.  XV.  24-38. 


144        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

honor  of  God  with  his  own  honor,  John  fully  re- 
produced them  in  the  words,  "  Whosoever  de- 
nieth  the  Son,  the  same  hath  not  the  Father  " ; 
and  this,  no  doubt,  because  of  his  experience  of 
the  divine  power  of  salvation  proceeding  from 
Jesus,  whom  he  "  bore  witness  "  the  Father  had 
sent  "  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world  ",  having 
learnt  that  he  possessed  the  secret  of  victory  over 
the  world  (i.  5). 

More  marked  than  any  other  feature  of  this 
epistle,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  its  exuberant  ex- 
pression of  confidence  by  the  word  "  know  ",  the 
true  word  for  expressing  experiential  certainty. 
It  has  a  lower  meaning  in  various  passages,  as 
when  it  signifies  knowledge  obtained  by  infer- 
ence from  facts,  such  as  the  knowledge  of  our 
spiritual  state  from  the  concrete  features  of  our 
spiritual  lives  (ii.  3,  6.  iii.  14.  v.  2.  cf.  ii.  18), 
or  a  firm  conviction  (iii.  19.  v.  13,  15),  or  even 
knowledge  of  a  mere  historical  fact  (v.  20)  ;  but 
its  predominant  meaning  is  another.  It  signifies 
the  certainty  of  personal  acquaintance  with 
Christ  (ii.  13,  v.  20)  and  with  God  (ii.  13,  iv.  6, 
7)  ;  of  moral  intuition  by  which  great  principles 
of  the  spiritual  life,  such  as  this,  ''  that  every 
one  that  doeth  righteousness  is  begotten  of  him  " 
(ii.  29,  cf.  iv.  16,  iii.  2,  6,  15,  v.  18),  are  directly 
perceived;  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  which  is 
the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  the  soul  (iii.  24,  iv.  13)  ; 
culminating  in  the  certainty  of  salvation  in  the 
present  possession  of  communion  with  God  (v. 


The  Person  of  Christ  145 

19).  With  this  knowledge  he  "knows"  Jesus 
Christ  (i.  1-4,  of.  Phil.  iii.  10),  and  recognizes 
in  him  "  the  true  God  "  (v.  20). 

We  mark  here  the  same  path  of  experiential 
advance  towards  the  doctrine  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ  which  we  have  already  traced  in  common 
Christian  experience.  It  is  not  necessary  to  sup- 
pose that  John  traversed  this  path  consciously. 
He  might  have  done  so.  But  more  probably,  it 
was  under  the  growing  evidence  of  the  marvel- 
lous works  of  Christ  (the  Gospel,  x.  25)  ;  of  his 
positive  teaching  in  regard  to  himself,  that  he 
came  down  from  heaven  (iii.  13),  was  himself 
eternal  (viii.  58),  the  light  of  men  (viii.  12),  the 
way,  the  truth,  and  the  life  (xiv.  6)  ;  of  his  con- 
stant reference  of  the  salvation  of  men  to  him- 
self (vi.  35)  ;  of  his  own  association  of  himself 
with  God  in  honor  (v.  23,  cf.  Phil  ii.  9,  10,  11), 
and  his  teaching  that  he  was  the  power  of  resur- 
rection (vi.  40,  xi.  25)  and  the  final  Judge  (v. 
22)  ;  that  John  came  to  recognize  and  believe  his 
true  deity  as  the  eternal  Word  (i.  i),  who  was 
God,  by  whom  all  things  were  made,  and  who, 
come  in  the  flesh,  was  full  of  grace  and  truth 
as  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father  (i.  14).  It 
was  with  this  apostle  as  with  most  of  us, — ex- 
perience and  instruction  went  hand  in  hand.  In- 
struction called  forth  experience;  but  experience 
following,  interpreted,  brought  home  the  con- 
vincing argument,  added  the  final  and  essential 
inner  confirmation.     Then  the  apostle  "  knew  ", 


146        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

and  his  testimony  was  of  one  who  had  handled 
the  Word  of  Life !  He  "  beheld  the  glory  ",  and 
the  argument  was  swift :  this  was  the  "  only  be- 
gotten of  the  Father  ". 

The  Apostle  Paul  began  his  Christian  life  in 
quite  another  way.  He  had  no  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  Jesus  upon  earth,  and  in  his  mind 
there  were  no  results  of  direct  communications 
of  truth  from  a  living  and  visible  human  teacher. 
Up  to  the  moment  of  the  vision  upon  the  way  to 
Damascus,  Paul  was  in  sharpest  conflict  with 
the  followers  of  Jesus  and  in  no  respect  inclined 
to  grant  to  him  a  higher  title  than  false  prophet 
or  to  ascribe  to  him  any  powers  but  those  which 
belong  to  a  dead  man.  By  this  most  sudden  and 
overwhelming  event  he  was  led  utterly  to  change 
his  mind.  He  viewed  Christ  now  as  Messiah  and 
Lord.  He  recognized  Christ's  immediate  agency 
in  this  change  and  in  all  that  came  from  it.  He 
never  thereafter  could  look  upon  Christ  in  any 
aspect  which  should  obscure  that  in  which  he 
appeared  as  an  exalted  king,  exercising  an  ex- 
tended sovereignty  over  men  and  things  for  the 
benefit  of  his  kingdom  upon  earth.^  The  glori- 
ous, living  and  reigning  Christ  eclipsed  in  his 

*Martineau  (Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion,  p.  483) 
says :  '*  What  is  called  the  *  mystic '  language  of  the 
Apostle,  of  *  living  in  Christ  *  and  *  Christ  living  in 
him ',  of  '  Christ  being  formed  in  his  disciples  *,  is 
hardly  even  figurative  to  him,  but  expresses  a  fact  of 
experience  as  understood  by  himself." 


The  Person  of  Christ  147 

eyes  and  almost  banished  from  his  thought*  the 
prophet  of  GaHlee.  And  so  Paul  becomes  the 
biblical  example  of  that  sort  of  conversion  which, 
in  these  lectures  we  have  been  considering  as 
typical  amid  all  the  examples  of  other,  less  plain 
but  essentially  identical,  conversion.  The  critics 
will  deny  the  objective  character  of  the  Damas- 
cus vision,  ascribing  it  to  the  objectifying  ten- 
dency of  powerful  impressions  in  an  abnormally 
excitable  mind.  But,  waiving  the  whole  contro- 
verted question,  Paul  was  a  convert  in  mature 
years,  under  powerful  motives,  to  the  Christian 
cause;  and  as  such  he  stands  forth  as  a  perma- 
nent example  of  a  change  which  has  been  occur- 
ring ever  since. 

We  should  therefore  expect,  if  Christianity  has 
"  preserved  its  type  ",  and  if  modern  Christian 
experience  is  truly  normal  in  its  characteristic 
manifestations,  that  Paul  would  be  found  to  fur- 
nish examples  of  the  same  experiences  and  lines 
of  reflection  and  to  arrive  at  the  same  conclusions 
reached  by  Christians  to-day.  Essentially  this  is 
so.  We  trace  in  the  personal  touches  found  in 
his  exceptionally  personal  epistles  the  great  lines 
of  thought  we  have  just  seen  in  John  and  had 
previously  found  in  ourselves.  The  seventh  and 
eighth  of  Romans,  in  particular,  are  so  vivid  in 

^  But  not  quite,  see  Ro.  ix.  5,  i,  3.  i  Cor.  xi.  23. 
2  Cor.  V.  21.  I  Cor.  xv.  21.  Ro.  v.  15,  cf.  Acts  xvii.  31. 
Ro.  viii.  3.  2  Cor.  xiii.  4,  and  Heb.  ii.  10,  17,  18  and 
like. 


148        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

their  description  of  the  progress  of  an  awakened 
soul  through  the  struggle  with  the  "  law  of  sin 
in  the  members  "  out  into  the  liberty  of  the  sons 
of  God  through  the  deliverance  wrought  in 
Christ  that  we  cannot  doubt  it  is  a  picture  drawn 
by  the  artist  of  himself.  That  process  of  con- 
viction is  introduced  by  "  the  law ",  but  else- 
where he  refers  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
life  to  the  election  of  God  "  in  Christ ",  so  that 
to  his  enHghtened  vision  Christ  was  the  source 
of  the  conviction,  as  manifestly  of  the  culminat- 
ing deliverance,  wrought  by  personal  revelation 
of  himself.  This  may  be  less  evident  to  some 
of  you  than  it  appears  to  me;  but  how  clear  is 
the  experience  Paul  gained  of  divine  power  pro- 
ceeding from  Christ  and  working  Hberation  from 
the  "law  of  death"!  "Who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death  ?  "  he  cries,  only  to 
find  the  swift  answer,  no  doubt  as  it  was  brought 
into  the  physical  darkness  of  blindness  which 
had  supervened  upon  the  spiritual  darkness  of 
despair,  "  I  thank  God,  [I  am  delivered]  through 
Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord ".  He  delineated  the 
steps  of  the  deliverance,  so  that  there  can  be  no 
doubt  left  that  he  had  received  from  Christ  an 
impartation  of  divine  gifts.  The  "  weakness  "  of 
the  law  is  replaced  by  a  "  fulfilling  of  the  ordi- 
nance ", — the  definite,  concrete,  homely  details 
commanded, — "  of  the  law  ".  The  "  mind  of  the 
flesh  "  is  succeeded  by  the  "  mind  of  the  spirit ", 
and  this  is  found  to  be  "  life  and  peace  " — ^just 


The  Person  of  Christ  149 

that  harmony  which  the  Christian  finds  in  his 
soul,  originating  in  his  conversion.  Men  come 
to  be  "  in  the  spirit ",  and  this  is  "  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  ",  which  is  a  spirit  of  Hfe,  quickening  even 
the  "  mortal  body  ".  For  "  bondage  "  comes 
"adoption",  and  for  "enmity",  "heirship". 
And  all  this  springs  from  "  the  love  of  Christ " 
towards  us,  from  which  "  neither  death  nor  life, 
nor  angels  nor  principalities,  nor  things  present 
nor  things  to  come,  nor  powers,  nor  height  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to 
separate  us ".  It  is  a  history  of  salvation  in 
which  Christ  becomes  experientially  "  the  power 
of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  ". 

The  same  experience  underlies  Paul's  doctrine 
of  justification.  On  its  objective  side  it  cannot, 
of  course,  be  a  matter  of  experience.  Paul  pre- 
sents it  almost  Hke  a  drama  (Ro.  iii.  19-26), 
viewing  all  men  as  brought  guilty  before  the  bar 
of  God,  able  to  plead  nothing  in  their  defence; 
God  setting  forth  his  Son,  in  his  blood,  as  a 
propitiation,  to  show  his  righteousness ;  and  then 
the  gift  of  God,  the  righteousness  provided  by 
him  bestowed  upon  believers  and  their  acquittal 
freely  by  God's  grace.  But  it  is  also  a  subjective 
process,  an  experience  of  the  soul,  and  this  also 
Paul  sketches  (Ro.  v.  i-ii).  The  objective  act  of 
God  performed,  "  peace  "  springs  up  in  the  soul, 
from  which  develops  other  Christian  blessings, 
hope  of  glory  ascending  out  of  tribulations  upon 
the  golden  ladder  of  patience  and  probation,  and 


150        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

incapable  of  putting  us  to  shame  because  it  is  a 
work  of  the  love  of  God  conferred  upon  us  and 
made  operative  in  us  by  the  Holy  Ghost, — and 
joy  in  God.  The  work  of  God  is  thus  experienced 
by  the  apostle,  and  it  is  inextricably  involved  in 
and  united  with  the  work  of  Christ,  so  that 
their  work  is  the  same  work  and  God  appears  to 
the  apostle  "  through "  Christ.  And,  as  with 
John,  it  is  through  Christ  that  we  come  really  to 
know  God,  in  learning  through  his  death  what, 
in  its  depth  of  meaning,  the  love  of  God  is.  Such 
is  Paul's  experience  of  the  divine  power  pro- 
ceeding from  Christ,  when  his  own  soul  believed 
on  him;  and  he  expects  to  find  it  repeated  in 
every  other  believer's  soul.  He  speaks  in  the 
passage  just  in  review  always  in  the  plural: 
"  we  "  have  peace,  joy,  hope,  and  reconciliation. 
Nor  is  all  this,  in  his  view,  a  mere  subjective  no- 
tion, a  conception  of  amiable  origin  and  pleasant 
appearance,  but  of  no  value  in  the  exigencies  of 
life:  it  is  a  subjective  fact,  an  experience,  some- 
thing knowable  and  known,  and  hence  objec- 
tively valuable.  He  therefore  proceeds  upon  one 
very  critical  occasion  to  make  it  the  basis  of  an 
argument,  and  to  rest  upon  it  nothing  less  than 
the  great  contention  of  his  life  and  his  whole 
apostolic  mission.  When  the  emissaries  of  the 
Jews  had  "  bewitched  "  the  Galatian  Christians, 
he  appealed  to  them  thus :  "  This  only  would  I 
learn  from  you,  Received  ye  [as  an  actual  fact, 
in  your  remembered  experience]  the  Spirit  [so 


The  Person  of  Christ  151 

as  to  come  into  the  conscious  freedom  of  the 
Christian  man]  by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by 
the  hearing  of  faith  ?  "  And,  doubting  nothing 
what  their  answer  must  be,  he  proceeds  "  Are  ye 
so  fooHsh?  Having  begun  [as  ye  know  ye  did]  in 
the  Spirit,  are  ye  now  perfected  in  the  flesh  ?  " 

Thus  Paul's  argument  for  the  true  deity  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  not  one  derived  alone  from  the 
manifestation  of  his  heavenly  glory  made  in  the 
way  to  Damascus,  but  from  that  and  other  revela- 
tions of  his  divine  nature,  interpreted  and  re- 
enforced  by  experiences  of  his  present  divine 
operation.  No  Apostle,  therefore,  more  empha- 
sizes the  present  reign  of  Christ  upon  the  throne 
of  the  universe  than  he.  He  goes  back  to  the 
creation  of  the  world  and  ascribes  this  to  Christ, 
views  its  whole  progress  as  taking  place  under 
his  sustaining  and  directing  power,  and  makes 
its  goal  the  glory  of  Christ.^  Out  of  this  original 
divine  form  he  came  when  he  emptied  himself 
and  took  the  form  of  a  servant  that  he  might 
endure  the  death  of  the  cross;  and  from  that 
depth  of  humiliation  he  has  been  exalted  and  has 
received  the  ineffable  name  and  come  to  be  far 
above  all  rule  and  authority    and    power,    all 

^  Col.  i.  15  flf.  Note  that,  like  John,  he  makes  Christ 
the  medium  rather  than  the  ultimate  original  of  creation , 
using  the  same  preposition  as  he,  Std,  (Col.  i.  i6  cf. 
Jn.  i.  3).  The  identity  of  the  Christology  of  these  two 
apostles  will  appear  more  evident  the  more  careful  the 
study  given  to  them. 


152        Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
things  being  in  subjection  under  his  feet,  where 
he  shall  reign  in  divine  glory  till  redemption  is 
accomplished  and  the  mediatorial  kingdom  shall 
come  to  an  end.' 

Could  we  pause  long  enough,  sufficient  proof 
might  be  gained,  even  from  the  brief  suggestions 
of  the  New  Testament,  that  the  experience  of  the 
rest  of  the  apostolic  group  was  the  same.  Na- 
thaniel, when  he  first  met  Jesus,  recognized  in 
him  the  "  King  of  Israel  "  ( Jn.  i.  49)  ;  hesitating 
but  devoted  Thomas  hailed  him  as  "  Lord  and 
God  "  ( Jn.  XX.  28)  ;  Peter  preached  his  exaltation 
and  lordship" ;  ascribed  to  him  the  guidance  of 
the  ancient  prophecy  (i  Peter  i.  11),  and  made 
him  the  living  and  present  agent  of  divine  ef- 
fects (Acts  ii.  33)  ;  Stephen  saw  him  rising  from 
his  throne  to  receive  the  martyr's  soul  (Acts 
vii.  56) ;  Paul's  pupil  who  wrote  the  Hebrews, 
made  him  creator,  preserver,  exalted  king  (i.  1-4), 
eternal  spirit  (ix.  14),  author  of  salvation  (ii.  10)  ; 
and  James  calls  him  "Lord  of  glory"  (ii.  i). 
Our  first  appeal  to  the  general  experience  of  the 
church,  made  to  its  first  repository  in  the  original 
documents  of  our  religion,  which  contain  the  rec- 
ord of  what  was  felt  and  learned  by  those  who 
were  in  immediate  connection  with  Jesus  Christ 
and  wrought  in  the  formative  period  of  the  newly 
established  church,  has,  therefore,  resulted  in  the 

*PhiI.  ii.  5-1 1,  compared  with  Eph.  i.  20-23,  i  Cor.  xv. 
24-28. 
•  Acts  ii.  33,  36.     I  Pet.  iii.  22.    Cf .  2  Pet.  iii.  18. 


The  Person  of  Christ  1 53 

confirmation  of  our  own  experience.  It  is  the 
testimony  of  the  apostolic  era,  as  of  our  own,  that 
Christ  is  God. 

This  is  our  appeal  to  the  New  Testament  rec- 
ord of  Christian  experience.  We  are  now  to  make 
a  second  appeal,  viz.,  to  the  experience  of  the 
church  since  the  apostolic  days,  to  the  final  ver- 
dict of  Christian  doctrinal  history.  We  shall  in- 
cidentally get  another  and  in  some  respects  more 
irrefutable  answer  to  the  objection  considered  at 
an  earlier  point,  since  it  will  appear  that  Chris- 
tian experience  is  not  founded  upon  the  Bible  in 
the  sense  that  it  is  the  blind  acceptance  of  some- 
thing given  from  without  by  a  merely  external 
authority,  but  that  it  has  ever  been  an  assimilat- 
ing process,  reflecting  upon  communicated  truth, 
viewing  it  on  many  sides,  and  receiving  it  after 
abundant  independent  tests  and  after  the  confir- 
mation of  proved  adaptation  to  the  spiritual  life 
which  it  was  expected  to  nourish.  It  is  like  hu- 
man testimony  to  the  goodness  of  a  food,  eaten 
because  offered  by  friendly  hands,  but  pro- 
nounced good  because  found  to  assimilate  with 
the  body  easily  and  to  sustain  health  and  strength. 

No  one  familiar  with  the  forms  of  New  Testa- 
ment piety  can  open  the  earliest  post-canonical 
writings  without  immediately  perceiving  the  close 
relation  of  the  one  to  the  other.  It  is  not  a  rela- 
tion of  identity,  for  the  plane  on  which  the  apos- 
tolic fathers  stand  is  lower  than  that  of  the  apos- 
tles; but  a  relation  of  derivation  of  material  as 


154  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
yet  not  fully  comprehended,  and  in  one  sense,  the 
purely  intellectual  and  abstract  sense,  not  com- 
prehended at  all.  Still,  as  the  purpose  of  the 
apostolical  writings  was  practical  and  the  audi- 
ence to  which  they  were  addressed  was  of  the 
common,  uneducated  mass  of  humanity,  the  dif- 
ference of  form  is  not  so  great  as  that  of  depth 
of  thought,  range  of  theme,  and  breadth  of  hori- 
zon. In  respect  to  the  person  of  the  Redeemer, 
there  are  sufficient  hints  in  the  earHest  of  these 
postapostolic  writers  to  show  complete  agree- 
ment with  the  New  Testament  in  regarding  him 
as  God;  and  yet  the  chief  argument  for  this 
statement  is  not  what  is  expressly  said,  but  what 
is  implied  in  the  general  attitude  and  form  of 
piety  towards  him.  In  the  eucharistic  liturgy  of 
the  "  Teaching  "  we  read  "  Hosanna  to  the  God 
of  David  " ;  Ignatius  styles  him  repeatedly  God^ 
— "  begotten  and  unbegotten,  God  come  in  the 
flesh  "^ — speaking  once  of  "  the  blood  of  God  " 
(Eph.  i.)  in  evident  allusion  to  Acts  xx.  28;  the 
Epistle  to  Diognetus  takes  up  the  Pauline  words 
and  calls  him  the  "  architect  and  world-builder 
by  whom  [God]  created  the  heavens ",  and 
names  him  "God"  (chap,  vii)  ;  Hermas  speaks 
of  him  as  "  the  holy  pre-existent  Spirit,  that  crea- 
ted every  creature  "' ;  which  style  of  expression  is 

*Ephesians  xviii.,  Romans,  introduc,  iii.;  Smjrrneans, 

X. 

*  Eph.  vii ;    cf.  xix. 

"  Shepherd,  Similitude,  V.,  vi. 


The  Person  of  Christ  155 

followed  by  Justin,  who  calls  him  "  God  "  (Dial. 
56),  and  also  by  all  the  later  great  writers,  as  it 
is  unnecessary  to  encumber  the  argument  by 
proving.  Many  of  the  early  church  derived  this 
view  from  the  New  Testament  circle  and  con- 
sciously rested,  no  doubt,  upon  that  authority  di- 
rectly and  exclusively,  though  not  without  a 
sense  of  experiential  confirmation  of  all  the  God- 
like greatness  that  was  ascribed  to  the  Redeemer. 
It  is  certainly  identical  in  its  principal  features 
with  the  New  Testament  view.^  But  occasion- 
ally we  find  evidence  of  the  influence  of  experi- 
ence in  the  formation  of  opinion,  and  sometimes 
that  the  early  church  followed  more  or  less  clear- 
ly that  precise  line  of  thought,  beginning  with  the 
experience  of  salvation,  which  we  have  ourselves 
traced  to-day.  For  example,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  so-called  Second  Epistle  of  Clement,  a  homily 
dated  by  Harnack  somewhere  in  the  interval  be- 
tween 130  and  160  A.  D.,  we  find  this  remarka- 
ble passage : — 

"  Brethren,  it  is  fitting  that  you  should  think 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  of  God, — as  the  judge  of  the 
living  and  the  dead.  And  it  does  not  become  us 
to  think  lightly  of  our  salvation  [as  we  should  if 
we  failed  to  perceive  from  it  that  he  is  God]  ". 
And  now  the  argument  takes  a  homiletic  direc- 

'  Harnack  strongly  opposes  this  view.  I  have  done 
what  I  can  to  answer  him,  I  hope  with  success,  in  the 
Bihliotheca  Sacra  for  April,  1892,  to  which  I  take  the 
liberty  to  refer  for  a  fuller  discussion. 


156        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

tion,  to  return  shortly  to  its  abandoned  course — 
"  for,  if  we  think  little  of  him,  we  shall  also  hope 

to  obtain  but  Httle For,  indeed,  how  great 

are  the  benefits  which  we  owe  to  him!  He  has 
graciously  given  us  light ;  as  a  father  [still  spoken 
of  Christ]  he  has  called  us  sons ;  he  has  saved  us 

when  we  were  ready  to  perish We  were 

deficient  in  understanding,  worshiping  stones 
and  wood  and  gold  and  silver  and  brass,  the 
works  of  men's  hands;  and  our  whole  life  was 
nothing  else  than  death.  Involved  in  blindness 
and  with  such  darkness  before  our  eyes,  we  have 
received  sight  and  through  his  will  have  laid  aside 
that  cloud  by  which  we  were  enveloped.  For  he 
had  compassion  upon  us  and  mercifully  saved  us, 
observing  the  many  errors  in  which  we  were  en- 
tangled, as  well  as  the  destruction  to  which  we 
were  exposed,  and  that  we  had  no  hope  of  salva- 
tion except  it  came  to  us  from  him.  For  he  called 
us  when  we  were  not,  and  willed  that  out  of  noth- 
ing we  should   attain   a   real   existence 

Thus  also  did  Christ  desire  to  save  the  things 
which  were  perishing,  and  has  saved  many  by 
coming  and  calling  us  when  hastening  to  destruc- 
tion. Since,  then,  he  has  displayed  so  great 
mercy  towards  us,  and  especially  in  this  respect, 
that  we  who  are  living  should  not  offer  sacrifices 
to  gods  which  are  dead  or  pay  them  worship,  but 
should  attain  through  him  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  true  Father,  whereby  shall  we  show  that  we 
do  indeed  know  him  but  by  not  denying  him 


The  Person  of  Christ  157 

through  whom  this  knowledge  has  been  obtained 
[that  is,  by  *  thinking  of  him  as  of  God ']?... 
Let  us  then  not  only  call  him  Lord.  .  .  [but]  let 
us  confess  him  by  our  works."^ 

In  this  remarkable  passage,  remarkable  for  the 
clearness  of  its  argument  as  well  as  the  depth  and 
comprehensiveness  of  its  view  of  the  work  of 
Christ  in  the  experience  of  the  Christian,  we 
have  the  fuller  expression  of  what  recurs  else- 
where in  less  perfect  form.  In  the  Epistle  to 
Diognetus  it  is,  however,  scarcely  less  perfect. 
The  writer  argues  the  vanity  of  idols  from  their 
complete  inability  to  help  in  any  way.  "  Are 
they  not  destitute  of  feeling  ?  Are  they  not  inca- 
pable of  motion  ?  ''  His  argument  for  the  divin- 
ity of  Christ,  which  he  presents  in  the  fullest  ex- 
pression yet  found  in  this  literatijre,  is  substan- 
tially that  of  the  homily's  and  the  converse  of  the 
refutation  of  idols,  though  put  in  the  form.  Since 
he  was  God  he  did  these  God-like  things.  He 
writes  accordingly,  "  As  a  king  sends  his  son  who 
is  also  a  king,  so  sent  he  him ;  as  God  he  sent  him, 
as  to  men  he  sent  him ;  as  a  Saviour  he  sent  him, 
and  as  seeking  to  persuade,  not  to  compel  us ;  for 
violence  has  no  place  in  the  character  of  God. 
As  calling  he  sent  him,  not  as  vengefully  pursu- 
ing us;  as  loving  us  he  sent  him,  not  as  judging 
us.     For  he  will  yet  send  him  to  judge  us,  and 

*  After  the  translation  of  the  Christian  Literature 
Company's  Edition  of  the  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol. 
IX.,  p.  251  f. 


158        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

who  shall  endure  his  appearing?  Do  you  not 
see  them  [Christians]  exposed  to  wild  beasts, 
that  they  may  be  persuaded  to  deny  the  Lord,  and 
yet  not  overcome  ?  Do  you  not  see  that  the  more 
of  them  are  punished,  the  greater  becomes  the 
number  of  the  rest?  This  does  not  seem  to  be 
the  work  of  a  man:  this  is  the  power  of  God; 
these  are  the  evidences  of  his  manifestation  "^ 
It  is  the  gentleness,  persuasiveness,  and  God-like 
love  in  which  the  Saviour  appears,  and  the  spirit- 
ual power  against  sin  and  against  the  greatest 
of  terrors,  that  of  sudden  and  awful  death,  which 
he  imparts,  that  prove  him  to  be  God. 

Specific  reflection  upon  the  nature  of  Christ 
early  began.  The  apostolic  fathers  were  engaged 
in  the  most  direct  and  practical  conflict  with  the 
sin  of  the  pagan  world.  The  source  of  their 
hope,  the  ground  of  their  salvation,  and  their  God 
they  found  in  Jesus  Christ.  By  faith  in  him 
they  received  forgiveness,  and  this  was  founded 
upon  the  great  features  of  his  redeeming  work. 
These  few  doctrinal  elements  were  enough  to  en- 
able them  to  maintain  the  great  conflict  they  were 
waging,  and  beyond  them  their  thoughts  did  not 
generally  go.  Ignatius  has  a  phrase  or  two 
which  suggest  later  discussions';  but  it  was  in 

^Ibidem,  vol.  I.,  p.  27  f. 

* "  Begotten  and  unbegotten,  passible  and  impassible  ", 
Eph.  vii.;  "who  was  before  the  eternities  with  the  Fa- 
ther", Mag.  vi.;  "Christ  his  Son,  who  is  his  Logos, 
proceeding  from  silence",  Mag.  viii.;cf.  Smyrn.i.  and 
Eph.  xviii. 


The  Person  of  Christ  159 

general  left  to  the  apologists  to  begin  the  long 
series  of  studies  upon  this  theme  which  was  to 
result  in  the  Chalcedon  doctrine  of  perfect  divin- 
ity and  perfect  humanity  in  the  unity  of  one  per- 
son. 

The  general  course  of  argument  in  both  apolo- 
gists and  polemics  is  from  the  Scriptures  as  an 
objective  authority,  and  ordinarily  excludes  ap- 
peals to  experience.  Yet  hints  of  a  similar  line 
of  thought  to  that  above  drawn  out  are  not  en- 
tirely lacking.  For  example,  in  Irenaeus  III. 
xix.  I,  the  argument  for  the  superhuman  charac- 
ter of  Christ  is  from  the  "  freedom  "  which  the 
Christian  has,  lacking  which  men,  of  course,  do 
not  see  what  Christ  is.  Again,  IV.  xiii.  2,  the  lib- 
eration wrought  by  the  Word  produces  "  piety 
and  obedience  due  to  the  Master  of  the  house- 
hold " ;  and  in  V.  xvii.  3,  the  argument  is  from 
the  remission  of  sins  by  Jesus  to  his  divinity, 
which  could  scarcely  have  been  made,  had  there 
been  no  subjective  experience  of  forgiveness,  al- 
though the  proof  adduced  that  he  did  forgive 
sins  is  the  gospel  record  (Matt.  ix.  2,  6). 

Following,  therefore,  the  line  of  more  objec- 
tive discussion,  the  apologists  first  develop  the 
argument  suggested  by  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and 
thus  advance  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos.  "  When 
the  race  was  sunk  in  sin  and  misery  ",  says  the 
Epistle  to  Diognetus,  for  substance,  "  God  for  a 
time  endured  this,  that  men  might  learn  how 
impossible  it  was  for  them  to  save  themselves. 


i6o        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

Out  of  his  infinite  goodness  he  had,  however,  al- 
ways determined  to  save  men.  This  he  did  by 
revealing  his  purpose  in  his  Son.  He,  the  all- 
Ruler  and  all-Creator,  did  not  send  an  angel  or 
inferior  being,  but  the  very  architect  and  builder 
of  the  whole,  by  whom  he  created  the  heavens. 
This  was  in  fulfillment  of  a  plan  formed  in  eter- 
nity and  communicated,  in  consequence  of  the  re- 
lationship subsisting  between  them,  to  the  Son, 
who  was  the  Logos,  who,  speaking  openly,  re- 
vealed the  truth.  By  him  is  the  church  enriched, 
from  him  comes  all  its  instruction,  through  him 
is  the  tradition  of  the  apostles  preserved,  and 
each  individual  teacher  taught.'' 

Justin  and  the  other  apologists  under  his  lead 
advance  a  little  upon  this  elementary  and  still 
quite  biblical  statement  in  the  direction  of  certain 
theoretical  elements  designed  to  add  something 
of  a  rationale.  Their  doctrine  may  be  summarily 
stated  in  the  following  form: — God,  who  had 
from  eternity  wisdom  in  himself,  before  his 
works  and  as  a  beginning  of  the  same,  begat  of 
himself  by  an  act  of  his  will  a  Son,  who  was  an- 
other God,  numerically  distinct  and  yet  not  sep- 
arate from  himself.  By  this  Son  God  created  the 
worlds,  revealed  himself  in  the  prophets  and  the 
Scriptures,  appeared  unto  the  patriarchs  and 
others  in  the  theophanies,  was  graciously  present 
in  all  men,  and  produced  everything  good  in  the 
world,  till  at  last  this  Son  was  miraculously  born 


The  Person  of  Christ  i6i 

of  a  virgin  and  as  our  Saviour  lived  and  died  in 
our  behalf. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  the  elements  of 
confusion  in  this  brief  summary,  the  ineffectual 
efforts  to  maintain  the  eternity  of  the  Logos  while 
ascribing  to  him  generation,  and  to  make  him 
"  another  "  from  God  that  he  might  be  a  true 
agent  in  the  work  of  creation  and  salvation  while 
preserving  the  indivisible  and  unchangeable  char- 
acter of  divinity.  Such  confusion  belongs  to  the 
beginning  of  thinking  on  any  obscure  and  com- 
plicated theme.  Enough  to  say  that  from  this 
point  the  thinking  of  the  church  steadily  ad- 
vanced under  successive  leaders.  We  may  say 
that  the  divinity  of  Christ  was  questioned  by  no 
party  in  the  church,  not  even  primarily  by  those 
who  ended  in  denying  it.  The  one  question  all 
were  seeking  to  answer  was.  What  is  this  divine 
which  is  in  Christ,  and  what  its  relation  to  the 
Father?  The  monarchians  were  jealous  for  the 
unity  of  God  and  sought  such  an  answer  as 
should  harmonize  with  this  ultimate  and  unsur- 
rendered fact ;  and  they  finally  said,  some  of  them, 
Christ  is  a  mere  man,  others.  The  divine  in  him 
is  the  divinity  of  the  Father,  appearing  now  un- 
der the  form  of  the  Son.  Tertullian  rather  stuck 
close  to  Justin's  form  of  thought  and  called  the 
Son  another  person  but  not  another  being  (alius 
not  aliud)  and  emphasized  his  subordination, 
vacillating  however  in  his  forms  of  expression 


1 62        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

and  leaving  unremoved  obscurities  of  idea.  Or- 
igen  sought  to  gain  a  point  of  view  from  which 
the  evident  subordination  of  the  Son  and  his  per- 
fect and  true  divinity  might  be  reconciled,  by  de- 
claring the  eternity  of  the  generation,  thus  dis- 
tinctly advancing  upon  Justin;  and  yet,  because 
the  word  "  God "  was  for  him  an  ambiguous 
word,  and  because  he  did  not  sharply  distinguish 
between  the  creature  and  the  creator,  he  could 
not  so  state  his  teaching  that  it  was  fitted  to  be- 
come a  permanent  part  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
church.  Christ  was  not  the  *'  principle  ",  nor  the 
**  fountain  of  deity  ",  nor  6  0£os,  but  only  e«6j, 
a  "  second  god  ",  '*  the  god  who  comes  after  the 
Father  in  all  things." 

In  such  a  slow  progress  of  thinking,  where  so 
many  elements  of  thought  are  mingled  in  appar- 
ently hopeless  perplexity  and  uncertainty,  it  or- 
dinarily requires  the  shock  of  some  one  great 
event  to  startle  men  into  clear  apprehension  and 
final  crystallization  of  their  substantial  belief. 
Such  a  shock  was  given  in  this  case  by  the  rough 
and  coarse  doctrine  of  Arius,  upon  which  the 
conclusion  arrived  at  in  the  Council  of  Nice  fol- 
lowed as  rapidly  as  in  chilled  water  the  crystals 
of  ice  will  sometimes  form  when  the  containing 
vessel  receives  a  blow.  Arius  sought  a  real  ex- 
planation of  the  divine  in  Christ.  It  was  not 
what  Sabellius  had  said,  the  Father  himself;  it 
could  not  be  another,  and  an  independent  deity; 
it  must  therefore  be  a  created  being  "  advanced  " 


The  Person  of  Christ  163 

to  deity  because  of  the  perfection  of  its  charac- 
ter and  its  infinitely  valuable  work  of  redemption. 
The  Council  became  clear  under  the  lead  of  Ath- 
anasius,  that  this  was  a  false  solution  and  finally 
settled  upon  that  form  of  stating  Christ's  divinity 
which  has  ever  since  maintained  its  place,  that  he 
is  "  consubstantial  "  with  the  Father. 

As  to  this  conclusion  certain  things  ought  to  be 
noted.  First,  the  character  of  Christian  thinking 
for  completeness  and  logical  accuracy  ought  to 
be  emphasized.  Every  possible  logical  solution 
of  the  problem  was  suggested  and  all  rejected  for 
various  good  reasons  except  the  one  finally  adop- 
ted^. On  the  side  of  logical  accuracy  the  discus- 
sion, therefore,  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired,  and 
has  never  been  surpassed  in  the  annals  of 
thought.  Again,  the  Council  of  Nice  was  in  fact 
ahead  of  its  age,  and  what  it  thus  successfully  set 
forth  could  not  at  once  be  received.  It  was 
therefore  followed  by  a  series  of  discussions,  ex- 

*  The  different  solutions  advanced  may  be  arranged  by 
exhaustive  dichotomic  division  as  follows : — 

The  Divine  in  Christ  was 


Truly  God,  Not  God. 

I  I 


The  Father,    Not  the  Father.    Christ  a  mere  man.  Not  man  [and 
{Sabellius).  I  {Paul of  Samos-      not  God],  the 

j ata  etc.)  [created]   Lo- 

j  i  gos. 

Subordinate        CONSUBSTANTIAL  (Artus). 

(.Tertullian,  Origen^  {Nice). 

We  see  thus,  at  a  glance,  that  no  other  suggestion  is 
logically  possible. 


164  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
tending  over  the  following  fifty-six  years,  in 
which  every  illogical  as  well  as  every  logical  form 
of  solution  was  discussed.  But  from  this  fuller 
and  often  passionate  discussion,  the  church  re- 
turned to  accept  finally  at  Constantinople  what 
had  been  affirmed  at  Nice,  and  to  carry  it  on  un- 
changed to  Chalcedon  after  seventy  years  more, 
whence  it  has  been  brought  down  still  unchanged 
to  us. 

What  then  has  careful  historical  criticism  to 
say  upon  the  soundness  of  this  development, — 
for  development  there  is  here,  from  the  simple 
biblical  form  of  Ignatius'  expressions,  through 
all  the  confusion  of  Justin,  to  the  highly  techni- 
cal expressions  of  the  two  great  councils.  Does 
the  doctrine  that  Christ  is  God  "  begin  in  a  germ 
actually  present  in  the  recorded  instruction  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles  "  ?  Most  emphat- 
ically we  must  say.  Yes;  the  proof  having  been 
already  drawn  out  at  length.  Again,  Does  it 
"  proceed  according  to  the  laws  of  logical  se- 
quence "  ?  In  the  broadest  meaning  of  this  en- 
quiry we  must  at  once  answer.  Yes ;  for  we  have 
seen  that  the  discussion  exhausted  the  field  of 
logical  possibilities.  In  the  narrower  sense, 
whether  the  arguments  used  to  support  the  Ni- 
caean  thesis  were  valid  to  our  present  thinking, 
we  shall  have  something  more  to  say  shortly ;  but 
we  may  now  answer,  Yes ;  for  the  assent  of  Chris- 
tian thinkers  is  still  given  to-day  to  this  thesis, 
and  we  have  ourselves  seen  that  it  accords  with 


The  Person  of  Christ  165 

that  particular  style  of  argument  which  we  are 
here  considering,  the  experiential.  Thirdly, 
Does  it  agree  with  other  doctrines?  This  we 
may  leave  till  we  come  to  those  doctrines  in  the 
progress  of  discussion,  except  as  we  may  even 
now  remark  that  it  is  confessedly  the  fundamen- 
tal doctrine  on  which  the  "  evangelical  system  " 
is  built,  and  must  therefore  be  consistent  with  the 
successive  features  of  that  system.  And,  finally. 
Does  it  agree  with  sound  biblical  exegesis?  Our 
answer  must  be  that  consubstantiality  alone  can 
satisfy  the  demands  of  Jn.  i.  i :  "  the  Word  was 
with  God  ['  con '  a  difference  of  some  sort],  and 
was  God  [the  substance,  deity,  being  common  to 
both]  '\  and  of  all  those  passages  which  predicate 
of  Christ  the  reception  of  divine  attributes  and 
offices,  creation,  judgment,  etc. 

Thus  we  say,  the  voice  of  general  Christian  ex- 
perience, as  expressed  by  the  deliberate  results  of 
Christian  thinking  is  for  that  doctrine  for  which 
our  own  individual  experience  speaks,  the  God- 
head of  Christ.  And  we  confirm  our  analysis 
of  history  by  that  other  canon  of  Newman^s, 
"  chronic  vigor  ",  for  the  doctrine  has  survived 
till  this  day. 

The  churches  of  New  England,  at  any  rate, 
have  evidence  to  give  as  to  its  survival.  One 
hundred  years  ago  a  movement  was  begun  there, 
which  soon  gained  control  of  polite  society,  or 
professional  life,  of  the  principal  ancient 
churches,  and  of  the  university,  that  wrote  upon 


1 66        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

its  banners  as  its  distinguishing  sign  and  battle- 
cry  the  denial  of  the  true  deity  of  the  Son.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  ancient  theology  had  received  its 
death  blow,  for  what  could  the  remaining 
churches  promise  of  strength  or  courage  or  stren- 
uous contest  or  final  victory  when  they  had  lost 
their  leaders,  their  prestige,  and  apparently  the 
most  valuable  portion  of  their  membership,  when 
to  every  other  taunt  this  was  added  that  they  were 
groping  in  the  darkness  of  mediaeval  obscurities 
and  of  still  more  ancient  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion, when  all  the  light  and  progress  of  the  mod- 
ern era  were  declared  against  them?  But  they 
rallied !  Their  churches  now  number  in  the  orig- 
inal seat  of  the  controversy,  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts, as  many  as  the  churches  of  the  defection 
in  the  whole  country,  and  it  is  by  these  churches, 
confessing  both  the  Father  and  the  Son,  that  the 
American  work  of  foreign  missions  was  begun 
and  a  large  part  of  American  home  missionary 
labor  has  been  performed.  The  theology  of  Nice 
proves  itself  to  have  vital  power  to-day  as  of 
old!  There  is  now  no  strong  and  aggressive 
Christian  church,  full  of  good  works,  and  histor- 
ically deserving  the  name  first  given  the  disciples 
at  Antioch,  which  is  not  established  upon  the  Ni- 
cene  foundation. 

Before  we  leave  the  Council  of  Nice  one  thing 
more  needs  to  be  noted.  In  a  sense  the  strength 
of  the  Council  itself,  as  of  the  long  and  bitter  con- 
troversy thereafter,  centered  in  the  person  of  Ath- 


The  Person  of  Christ  167 

anasius.  We  have  at  hand  fortunately  the 
means  for  determining  the  grounds  upon  which 
Athanasius  rested  his  beHef,  for  he  not  only  be- 
came the  central  figure  at  Nice  but  the  principal 
disputant  upon  the  side  of  the  Council  in  subse- 
quent years,  and  his  voluminous  writings  enable 
us  to  follow  the  course  of  his  thought  minutely. 
His  predecessor  Alexander,  seems  both  to  have 
received  the  results  of  previous  thinkers*  labor  as 
a  tradition  and  to  have  arrived  by  his  own  reflec- 
tion at  mature  and  settled  results ;  for  he  was  at 
once  ready  to  meet  the  Arian  proposals  with  a 
counter  statement  which  leaves  little  to  be  desired 
for  clear  presentation  of  the  true  deity  of  the 
Son.  Athanasius  was  trained  therefore  in  an  at- 
mosphere where  the  main  proposition,  that  Christ 
was  God,  was  taken  as  a  fundamental  Christian 
truth,  not  itself  open  to  further  questioning  and 
furnishing  the  standard  by  which  other  dcictrine 
was  to  be  tested.  He  became  remarkably  famil- 
iar by  his  own  study  with  the  Scriptures  and 
gained  his  chief  and  decisive  arguments  in  favor 
of  the  orthodox  position  from  them.  The  "  Ora- 
tions against  the  Arians  "  are  one  continuous  ex- 
egetical  argument,  and  none  can  say  that  on  the 
whole  the  exegesis  does  not  reproduce  the  true 
meaning  of  the  Bible.  There  are  faults  of  in- 
terpretation arising  from  the  defects  of  exegetical 
science  in  those  days,  such  as  the  introduction  of 
irrelevant  texts,  and  the  free  employment  of  alle- 
gory ;  but  the  latter  mode  of  treatment  was  forced 


1 68        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

on  Athanasius  by  his  adversaries  in  respect  to 
Proverbs  viii.  22  ff:  "The  Lord  created  [LXX. 
cKTide]  me  a  beginning  of  his  ways,  for  his 
works  " ;  the  text  in  reference  to  which  his  chief 
exegetical  sins  are  committed,  and  the  use  of  ir- 
relevant texts  is  sometimes  the  result  of  the  con- 
viction that  the  divinity  of  Christ,  being  in  Scrip- 
ture, is  reflected  or  suggested  at  many  points 
where  it  is  not  strictly  proved,  so  that  such  texts 
have  a  bearing,  even  if  not  capable  of  serving  as 
primary  proofs.  Yet  the  argument  in  form  and 
in  spirit  is  a  refutation  of  error,  rather  than  the 
fresh  and  original  establishment  of  a  truth.  That 
truth  for  Athanasius  is  already  established.  He 
is  now  concerned  in  showing  how  every  sugges- 
tion of  the  Arians,  instead  of  helping  to  interpret 
or  defend  the  truth,  corrupts  or  destroys  it.  The 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  "  God  and  Son  of  the  Fa- 
ther ",  and  the  decisive  question  is  "  Which  of 
these  two  theologies  [the  orthodox  or  the  Arian] 
sets  him  forth  thus  "  (i.  9)  ?  He  charges  upon 
his  opponents  error  in  method,  that  they  begin 
with  the  humanity  and  strive  to  rise  to  deity, 
whereas  they  should  begin  with  the  other,  since 
the  deity  admits  of  no  question  (iii.  29  ff.  and  35). 
Then  they  make  Christ  a  creature  so  that  he 
cannot  be  God,  whereas  he  is  God  and  therefore 
cannot  be  a  creature.  Of  such  arguments  there 
are  many ;  but  they  are  not  the  sole  or  the  funda- 
mental arguments,  however  much  the  exigencies 
of  the  debate  may  compel  their  amplification  and 


The  Person  of  Christ  169 

reiteration.  Thus  Athanasius,  says  Thomasius, 
"  does  not  delay  upon  the  more  dialectical  replies, 
he  goes  to  the  root  of  the  antagonism,  to  the  in- 
consistency of  Arianism  with  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness of  redemption,  and  emphasizes  this 
with  striking  power.  The  proposition  to  which 
Arianism,  in  spite  of  all  its  turnings  and  evasions, 
always  comes  back  finally,  the  proposition  that 
the  Son  is  a  creature,  absolutely  annihilates 
Christianity.  Christianity  is  essentially  on  the 
one  hand  redemption  from  sin  and  death,  on  the 
other  reunion  of  fallen  humanity  with  God. 
*  Such  redemption  and  restoration  no  creature  is 
able  to  effect  but  only  he  who  is  at  once  man  and 
in  essence  one  with  God.  Only  the  incarnate 
God  can  redeem  man  from  sin  and  curse  and 
death,  only  God  can  unite  the  creature  with  God 
[hence  the  necessity  of  incarnation,  death,  and 
resurrection].  If  the  Son  were  a  creature,  he 
could  not  have  taken  away  sin  and  the  curse  of 
sin,  conquered  death,  and  communicated  life;  we 
should  still  be  lying  in  death,  under  the  old  curse, 
still  unclothed  with  immortality,  not  glorified  with 
Christ.  Had  he  become  man  as  a  creature,  man 
had  remained  what  he  was  before,  not  united 
with  God;  for  how  could  a  creature  be  united 
with  the  Creator  by  a  creature,  or  what  help 
could  come  from  like  to  like,  since  it  needed  it- 
self like  help  ?  How  could  the  Logos,  if  he  were 
a  creature,  undo  God's  sentence  and  remit  sin, 
since  this  is  the  prerogative  of  God  alone  ?     In  a 


lyo  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
word,  how  could  a  transitory  being  forgive  sin? 
But  the  Lord  forgave  it  and  thereby  shewed  that 
he  was  in  truth  the  one  Logos  and  the  image  of 
the  Father  who  alone  judges  and  forgives  sin. 
For  man  had  not  been  deified  if  joined  to  a  crea- 
ture, or  unless  the  Son  were  very  God;  nor  had 
man  been  brought  into  the  Father's  presence,  un- 
less he  had  been  his  natural  and  true  Word  who 
had  put  on  the  body.  And  as  we  had  not  been 
deHvered  from  sin  and  the  curse  unless  that 
which  the  Word  put  on  had  been  by  nature  hu- 
man flesh  (for  we  should  have  had  nothing  com- 
mon with  what  was  foreign),  so  also  man  had 
not  been  deified  unless  the  Word  who  became 
flesh  had  been  by  nature  from  the  Father  and  true 
and  proper  to  him.  For  the  union  was  of  this 
kind  in  order  that  he  who  is  man  bv  nature  might 
become  one  with  him  who  is  God  by  nature,  and 
thus  his  salvation  and  deification  might  be  made 
sure  \"^ 

Few  of  us  will  probably  sympathize  with  the 
details  of  Athanasius*  arguments.  His  realism, 
and  his  consequent  thought  of  a  union  with  God 
effected  for  humanity  by  the  incarnation  as  a 
physical  fact,  of  a  change  essentially  ethical  ef- 
fected without  the  action  of  the  moral  nature  of 
man,  are  not  to-day  very  acceptable, — from  my 
own  point  of  view  altogether  erroneous.     But  his 

^"  Dogmengeschichte,"  I.,  p.  211.  The  quotations  are 
somewhat  freely  put  together  from  Contra  Ar.,  II.,  67- 
70,  cf.  III.,  33' 


The  Person  of  Christ  171 

main  thought  is  a  simpler  one,  which  we  shall 
find  reproduced  in  all  our  minds,  the  conviction 
that  the  depth  of  our  necessity  is  too  great  for 
any  being  to  explore  except  God  himself.  It  is 
essentially  the  argument  which  gives  us  our 
Christian  doctrine  of  God.  We  know  the  world 
and  we  know  ourselves ;  only  a  divine  Saviour  is 
sufficient  for  us. 

We  should  pause  to  note  that,  sharply  as  Kaf- 
tan and  the  Ritschlians  criticize  the  ancient  doc- 
trine for  its  realistic  and  physical  aspects,  at  this 
vital  point  in  the  development  of  Christian  doc- 
trine they  all,  even  Harnack,  concede  its  correct- 
ness. Much  as  Harnack  disagrees  with  and  dis- 
likes Thomasius,  he  agrees  with  him  in  his  esti- 
mation of  the  "  immortal  service  "  (Thomasius, 
op.  cit.,  p.  219)  rendered  by  Athanasius,  who,  he 
says,  "  saved  the  Christian  church  "  (Harnack, 
Doggsch.,  II.,  p.  221).  He  thinks  that  Atha- 
nasius saved  "  religion  ",  that  is  personal  relation 
to  God  in  redemption,  which  Arius  would  have 
buried  beneath  a  philosophical  cosmology  that 
would  have  converted  Christianity  into  a  mere 
system  of  intellectual  speculation.  At  this  point, 
then,  the  thirst  for  "  knowledge  "  did  not  corrupt 
Christian  doctrine. 

We  have  thus  found  the  doctrine  of  the  divin- 
ity of  Christ  founded  in  our  personal  experience 
of  grace  and  in  the  universal  experience  of  the 
church,  both  primitive  and  later.  But  the  Coun- 
cil at  Nice  did  more  than  declare  that  the  Son 


172         Christian  Life  and  Theology. 

was  God,  being  consubstantial  with  the  Father. 
The  Nicseno-Constantinopolitan  creed  formula- 
ted a  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  for  it  confessed  its 
belief  in  the  Father,  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life. 
This  doctrine  is  not  so  immediately  derived  from 
Christian  experience  as  the  other;  but  it  will  be 
worth  our  while  to  see  in  what  respects  experi- 
ence both  prepares  for  and  confirms  it. 

To  solve  this  problem  we  retrace  our  steps  and 
begin  again  at  the  beginning  of  all  Christian  life, 
with  the  original  and  ultimate  fact  of  the  new 
birth.  That  event  emphasizes  in  consciousness 
the  idea  of  law,  and  associates  with  God,  as  he 
appears  before  the  soul  in  the  process  of  its  re- 
flection upon  its  experiences,  the  attribute  of  law- 
giver; for  conscience  which  creates  the  convic- 
tion of  law  for  us,  is  the  work  of  our  Creator,  and 
must  utter  his  voice  and  not  any  merely  subjec- 
tive imagination  of  our  own.  And  those  further 
experiences  and  moral  intuitions  and  convictions, 
of  responsibility  and  guilt  and  condemnation,  the 
soul  also  projects  into  the  objective  world  and 
concludes  that  God  recognizes  the  personality  and 
responsibility  of  every  sinner,  and  will  visit  every 
such  one  with  his  displeasure. 

But,  now,  God  appears  in  a  second  aspect, 
which  is  in  no  way  derivable  from  this  first  as- 
pect alone.  This  speaks  condemnation  and  testi- 
fies of  justice  and  involves  separation  and  dis- 
tance between  Creator  and  creature,  Law-giver 


The  Person  of  Christ  173 

and  law-breaker.  No  one  could  infer  from  such 
a  fact  as  to  God  that  he  would  move  out  of  that 
isolated  and  severe  sphere  of  condemnation  and 
opposition  and  begin  a  work  of  regeneration  in 
sinful  souls  by  assembling  about  them  the  infinite 
motives  of  the  divine  love  leading  to  self-recogni- 
tion and  self-condemnation,  to  repentance  and  to 
submission.  But  God  does  thus  reveal  himself, 
and  it  is  upon  the  shining  path  furnished  by  the 
rays  of  such  illuminating  and  kindling  light  that 
the  soul  actually  ascends  to  the  knowledge  of 
God.  Moreover  the  revelation  of  God  does  not 
stop  here;  for  now  a  third  thing  not  merely  un- 
expected but  paradoxical  occurs.  This  second 
aspect  of  God,  however  impossible  to  infer  from 
the  first,  does  not  appear  contradictory  of  it  and 
thus  seem  paradoxical.  If  there  can  be  any  end 
conceived,  it  does  not  diminish  the  justice  of  God 
that  he  should  move  the  sinner  towards  repent- 
ance. But  when  he  forgives,  when  he  reverses 
justice,  when  he  causes  self-condemnation  to 
cease  within  the  Christian's  soul,  when  he  ap- 
pears as  Saviour,  then  he  has  done  something 
which  experience  does  not  explain.  It  accepts  it ; 
but  it  does  not  understand  it.  And  so  God  ap- 
pears in  three  distinct  relations  before  the  soul  in 
its  first  living  contact  with  him ;  relations  so  dis- 
tinct that  they  appear  to  reflection  first  unexpect- 
ed, and  then  in  part  contradictory. 

But  Christian  experience  does  not  stop  with 
the  new  birth.    This  is  the  ultimate,  but  it  is  the 


174        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

initial  fact  of  the  Christian  life,  a  fact  followed 
by  others  as  germination  is  followed  by  growth 
of  stem,  leaf,  branch,  and  flower.  This  growth 
discloses  many  things.  Christ  once  accepted  as 
God,  many  revealing  activities  get  associated  with 
him.  "  Cosmology  ",  as  Harnack  styles  it,  has 
no  religious  interest  to  him  as  a  merely  scientific 
theme,  but  as  the  beginning  of  salvation  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world  by  Christ  becomes  of  great  in- 
terest to  him,  as  well  as  the  primal  revelation  an- 
tecedent to  the  advent,  whether  by  theophany  or 
prophecy.  Preserver  of  all  things  and  goal  of 
the  universe,  the  exalted  King  displays  new  sides 
of  the  character  of  him  who  was  in  the  beginning 
with  God.  But  none  of  these  or  other  relations 
or  activities  in  which  Christ  is  found  to  stand  or 
manifest  himself  are  in  any  way  inconsistent  with 
the  primal  office  of  the  "  expression  of  God's  per- 
son, and  the  radiance  of  his  glory  ".  And  fur- 
ther^  there  is  a  continuation  of  the  work  of  regen- 
eration in  sanctification.  On  one  side,  these 
works  are  identical;  for,  as  regeneration  is  the 
persuasive  application  of  motives  to  the  will  lead- 
ing it  to  the  initial  step  of  conversion,  so  there  is 
a  constant  persuasive  activity  of  God  in  main- 
taining the  faltering  Christian  life  by  the  con- 
tinued presentation  of  incitements  to  resist  evil 
and  do  good.  And  so  the  divine  Spirit  appears 
as  awakener,  teacher,  inspirer,  medium  of  com- 
munion with  God  (Ro.  viii.  15,  26),  and  sancti- 
fier.    Thus  there  are  three  ever  enlarging  rela- 


The  Person  of  Christ  175 

tions  in  which  the  Christian  soul  stands  with 
God;  but  further  than  these  three,  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit,  no  distinct  divine  agencies  ap- 
pear operative  in  any  Christian  experience. 

We  say  "  any  ".  There  are  no  more  in  the 
Scriptures.  While  there  is  no  developed  doctrine 
of  the  trinity  in  the  Bible  expressed  in  the  forms 
of  Nice,  or  in  other  theological  formulations,  the 
attitude  of  the  New  Testament  writers  is  evident- 
ly that  which  we  have  found  as  we  have  traced 
the  developments  of  our  own  experience.  They 
refer  all  these  separate  offices  which  we  have  re- 
ferred to  the  Son  and  the  Spirit,  to  the  same,  and 
in  the  same  way.  They  mention  no  others.  And 
when  apostles  wish  to  supplicate  the  fulness  of 
the  divine  blessing  for  some  beloved  church,  for 
Corinth,  or  Philippi,  or  Rome,  they  can  ask  only 
for  the  love  of  God,  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Thus  are  exhausted  both  the  fulness  of  the  divine 
blessing  and  the  number  of  the  divine  persons.  It 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  in  simple  experiential 
expression.  It  is  the  outflow  of  the  primal  intui- 
tion of  the  Christian  that  everything  about  our 
salvation,  both  in  its  inception  and  in  all  its  long 
development  and  perfection,  comes  from  God  and 
has  its  eternal  ground  in  his  nature. 

The  modern  German  school  of  experiential  the- 
ologians originated  by  Albrecht  Ritschl  will  ob- 
ject strongly  to  the  course  of  our  argument  and 
to  our  result.     All  these  themes  have  no  "  inter- 


176        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

est "  to  the  Christian,  that  is,  in  no  way  contrib- 
ute to  his  Christian  Hfe.  It  is  true,  there  is  an 
economical  trinity,  for  God  does  sustain  the  three 
relations  of  Father,  Redeemer,  and  Spirit,  or 
manifests  himself  in  three  ways.  But  as  for  the 
"  ontological  relations "  of  these  personal  ex- 
pressions of  God,  for  the  pre-existence  of  Christ, 
etc.,  they  are  of  no  "  interest "  to  us,  and  do  not 
belong  in  Christian  theology,  whatever  may  be 
true  about  them  or  not  true.  As  we  look  at 
Christ  we  behold  God  in  the  only  sense  in  which 
it  is  of  any  importance  that  we  should  know  him, 
as  coming  to  us  in  forgiving  love.  Christ  has 
divine  attributes,  because  he  has  perfect  love,  and 
is  unchangeably  superior  to  the  world;  and  he 
exemplifies  these  divine  attributes  in  his  per- 
fect loyalty  to  his  calling  as  the  messenger 
of  reconciliation,  even  when  this  involves 
submission  to  death.  He  is  a  being  "  filled 
with  divine  contents  ".  All  this  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  us.  Christ  excites  towards  God, 
the  Father,  and  towards  himself  the  liveliest  feel- 
ings of  confidence,  affection,  and  loyalty.  He 
does  this  because  of  his  manifested  character. 
But  his  pre-existence  is  of  no  importance  to  us. 
It  separates  between  him  and  us  rather  than 
unites  us  with  him,  for  it  carries  him  away  into  a 
sphere  where  we  know  nothing  of  him  and  come 
in  no  contact  with  him.  And  thus,  to  say  the 
least  that  can  be  said,  it  is,  in  the  Ritschlian  view^ 
altogether  outside  the  true  sphere  of  Christian 


The  Person  of  Christ  1 77 

theology.  Ritschl  himself,  according  to  his  son 
Otto,  believed  as  truly  in  the  deity  of  Christ  as  in 
the  existence  of  God ;  but  it  remained  for  him  an 
unexplained  paradox,  like  the  co-existence  of  di- 
vine sovereignty  and  human  freedom,  and  when 
he  made  any  positive  affirmation  as  to  the  nature 
of  Christ,  it  was  always  this,  A  mere  man  with 
divine  contents.* 

But  this  is  all  an  exaggerated  subjectivism. 
One  might  as  well  go  a  little  further  and  say  that 
the  existence  of  God  himself  is  of  no  ''  interest " 
to  us,  that  nothing  is  required  to  constitute  a 
genuine  religious  experience  but  the  recognition 
of  duty  and  the  voluntary  assumption  of  its  ob- 
ligations. God  himself  we  can  never  see ;  and  if 
we  view  him  as  existing  in  eternity,  we  "  sepa- 
rate him  from  us  rather  than  bring  him  near," 
because  we  create  the  impassable  gulf  between 
him  and  us  which  necessarily  separates  the  in- 
finite from  the  finite.  If  man  recognizes  the  law 
of  his  being  and  obeys  it,  that  is  enough.  So  we 
might  say,  and  so  theoretical  atheists  and  modern 
agnostics  have  often  said;  but  they  have  never 
carried  the  assent  of  Christian  thinkers. 

We  need  not  only  subjective  experience  of 
which  we  are  perfectly  certain  as  subjective,  but 
also  an  objective  ground  for  the  same.     Chris- 

*  For  more  detailed  criticisms  see  Dr.  James  Orr's 
book  upon  the  Ritschlian  theology,  and  articles  upon 
Christology  in  the  Bihliotheca  Sacra  by  the  lecturer  in 
the  volume  for  the  year  1896. 


178        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

tian  thinking  demands  this  by  the  unavoidable 
law  of  the  human  mind.  We  pass  from  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  soul  and  the  world  to  God,  and  by 
a  similar  and  equally  necessary  process  of  reason- 
ing we  pass  from  what  we  know  of  Christ,  from 
his  work  in  our  souls,  and  from  the  attributes  he 
manifests  in  human  history,  from  his  "  divine 
contents  ",  to  his  own  divinity.  We  ascribe  real- 
ity to  this  divinity,  and  then  we  ask,  What  con- 
ception of  that  divinity  is  necessary  to  form  a 
consistent  view  of  God  and  of  Christ?  And  the 
answer  to  that  question,  the  only  possible  answer 
under  the  conditions  imposed  by  Christian  think- 
ing, is  his  consubstantial  divinity. 

This  result,  we  maintain  in  opposition  to 
Ritschl,  is  of  the  utmost  "  interest  "  to  the  Chris- 
tian. He  cannot  sustain  that  attitude  of  perfect 
reliance  upon  Christ  which  Christian  piety  ac- 
tually demands  nor  look  to  him  for  the  divine 
gifts  of  forgiveness  and  sanctification  unless  he 
believes  him  to  be  truly  God,  not  merely  a  man  in 
moral  harmony  with  God.  We  cannot  join  the 
pagans  of  Greece  and  Rome  in  deifying  men.  We 
cannot  trust  ourselves  to  a  mere  man  however 
good.  The  person  we  believe  in,  that  very  man 
Jesus  Christ,  must  be  somehow,  in  some  reality 
of  his  being,  the  personal  God.  As  such  he  must 
have  the  attributes  of  God,  he  must  be  eternal. 
It  is  only  as  we  view  Christ  as  eternal  that  we 
view  him  at  all  as  God.  A  temporal,  temporary 
Christ  is  not  God.     And  when  he  manifests  "  su- 


The  Person  of  Christ  179 

periority  to  the  world  ",  as  Ritschl  says  he  must, 
capable  of  imparting  itself  to  me,  I  must  know 
whether  it  is  a  real  "  superiority  ",  amounting  to 
a  "  dominion  ",  whereby  he  is  able  to  take  me  un- 
der his  almighty  protection  and  secure  my  salva- 
tion, or  whether  it  is  only  ideal,  and  merely  means 
that  he  could  die  for  duty's  sake.  So  can  I,  and 
so  have  thousands  who  had  no  Christian  hope  to 
sustain  them.  But  what  I  need  is  real,  objective, 
almighty,  world-controlling  and  universe-govern- 
ing, truly  divine,  dominion.  That  is  what  ex- 
cites my  "  interest ",  moves  my  "  feelings  of 
pleasure  '\  and  gives  me  the  hope  of  eternal  life. 
But  in  a  mere  god-like  man,  who  in  himself  can 
only  die,  I  have  no  such  interest,  in  fact,  I  view 
the  mere  ideal,  when  it  is  presented  to  me  as  my 
Saviour,  with  positive  pain  and  apprehension.  If 
that  is  my  only  hope,  I  am,  "  of  all  men,  most 
miserable  ". 

How  utterly  Ritschl  failed  to  understand  the 
demands  of  Christian  piety  and  how  differently 
the  universal  church  views  its  Lord,  Jesus  Christ, 
may  be  seen,  as  by  a  single  glance  of  the  eye,  in 
the  hymns  which  have  found  an  universal  cur- 
rency. That  most  majestic  hymn,  the  Te  Deum 
Laudamus,  which  might  well  be  styled  the  uni- 
versal hymn  of  the  modern  as  of  the  ancient 
church,  praises  God  as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost ;  and  when  it  bursts  into  its  fullest  harmo- 
nies it  is  to  sing :  "  Thou  art  the  King  of  Glory, 
O  Christ,  thou  art  the  everlasting  Son  of  the  Fa- 


i8o        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

ther."  And  in  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  it  is  to  the 
"  only-begotten  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  Lord  God, 
Lamb  of  God,  Son  of  the  Father,"  that  the  prayer 
for  forgiving  mercy  goes  up.  These  hymns  have 
thrilled  the  Christian  generations,  and  no  Chris- 
tian to-day  can  hear  them  with  an  intelligent  ap- 
prehension of  their  meaning  without  profound 
emotion.  They  not  only  bear  on  their  wings  the 
petitions  of  a  praying  church  and  are  intrinsically 
fit  to  do  so;  but  represent  that  vital  element,  the 
removal  of  which  would  clip  the  wings  of  soaring 
praise  and  aspiration,  stifle  the  voice  of  supplica- 
tion, chill  the  emotions  of  the  Christian  heart,  and 
leave  the  struggling  soul  undefended  in  the  temp- 
tations of  the  world;  for,  in  varying  figure,  ar- 
mor, vital  heat  and  light,  golden  chains  lifting  up 
towards  heaven  and  binding  the  soul  to  the  feet 
of  God,  and  more,  is  the  belief  of  the  Christian  in 
Christ  as  truly  God.  We  face  a  revived  Gnosti- 
cism in  this  new  agnostic  subjectivism  of  the 
Ritschlians,  against  which  we  must  join  with  the 
Polemics  of  the  third  century  in  confessing  Je- 
sus Christ  "  truly  "  God  and  "  truly  "  come  in 
the  flesh. 

We  may  expect  that  the  Ritschlian  school  in 
general  will  abandon  the  position  of  Ritschl,  as 
Kaftan  has  clearly  done.  In  the  Dogmatik 
(page  438  ff.)  he  says:  "What  Ritschl  main- 
tains, that  Christ  is  not  revealed  to  us  in  the  inner 
equipment  of  his  nature,  and  that  he  possesses 
importance  for  us  not  as  a  developing  character. 


The  Person  of  Christ  1 8 1 

but  as   one  complete,   is  correct But  it 

does  not  follow  therefrom  that  dogmatics  need 
not  concern  themselves  with  these  questions.  On 
the  contrary,  consequences  arise  here  which  form 
essential  elements  in  that  view  of  history  and  of 
the  world  which  results  from  Christian  faith.  We 
cannot  fail  to  draw  them,  because  faith  assumes 
that  its  doctrines  possess  objective  truth.  With- 
out drawing  these  conclusions  the  knowledge 
(Erkenntniss)  of  the  faith  would  seem  to  lack 
reality."  He  then  goes  on  to  say  that  the  Trin- 
ity embraces  the  truth  as  to  the  very  essence 
(Wesen)  of  deity.  "  God  would  not  be  what  he 
is  without  revelation  in  the  Son  and  communica- 
tion through  the  Holy  Spirit."  No  "  ideal  "  pre- 
existence  of  Christ  can  meet  the  necessities  of  the 
case.  "  We  can  formulate  the  truth,"  he  adds, 
"  only  in  some  such  way  as  this :  Jesus  is,  accord- 
ing to  his  godhead,  eternally  in  God;  and  we 
must  admit  the  concept  of  his  pre-existence  as  the 
sensuous  expression  for  this  truth,  confining  it, 
however,  strictly  within  the  proper  limits." 

But  we  must  hasten  on  from  this  to  other 
topics.  We  pause  to  call  attention  briefly  to  the 
self-imposed  limitations  of  the  argument  hither- 
to, and  to  the  possibility  of  its  indefinite  expan- 
sion, now  that  the  object  of  that  limitation  is  at- 
tained. We  have  drawn  our  principal  arguments 
upon  the  subject  of  this  lecture,  the  Person  of 
Christ,  as  before,  from  the  immediate  conscious- 
ness of  the  Christian  and  from  the  experiences 


1 82        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

arising  in,  or  in  immediate  connection  with,  the 
new  birth*.  We  have  gained  in  soHdity  of  argu- 
mentation, but  we  have  lost  somewhat  in  variety, 
extent,  and  perhaps  to  some  minds  in  that  co- 
gency conveyed  by  an  argument  from  the  broader 
field  of  the  more  general  and  more  vividly  felt 
experience  of  maturer  and  later  years.  Our  dis- 
cussion will  therefore  seek  no  longer  to  confine 
itself  to  the  facts  of  immediate  consciousness,  but 
will  now  speak  with  less  of  accurate  discrimina- 
tion, of  Christian  experience  as  the  general  result 
in  mind  and  heart  of  what  is  known  by  original 
perception  and  what  is  confirmed,  however 
gained,  by  the  conformity  which  it  proves  to  have 
to  this  more  original,  and  to  all  other  Christian 
knowledge.  And,  as  'we  turn  from  our  present 
topic,  we  linger  a  moment  to  remark  that  the  true 
deity  of  Christ  has  one  of  its  most  conclusive  con- 
firmations to  many  minds  in  its  practical  useful- 
ness as  a  promotive  of  Christian  piety.  If,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  true  humanity  of  Christ  has 
been  the  source  of  strength  as  the  pledge  and 
proof  of  his  knowledge  of  our  human  limitations^ 
and  his  consequent  sympathy  with  us,  so  that  men 
have  dwelt  with  edification  on  his  weariness  in 
journeying,  his  hunger,  his  agony  in  Gethsemane, 
and  all  his  human  experiences,  still  on  the  other 
hand  the  growth  of  the  church  in  grace  has  been 
by  the  knowledge  of  his  divine  perfections.  It 
has  been  when  men  have  taken  every  recorded 
word  of  his  as  the  utterance  of  infinite  wisdom. 


The  Person  of  Christ  183 

and  dwelling  thereupon  have  extracted  comfort 
from  the  fountain  of  divine  perfection,  when  the 
critical  attitude  has  been  in  abeyance  and  the 
child-like  spirit  of  the  pupil  before  the  unsurpas- 
sable Master  has  taken  its  place,  when  his  spirit- 
ual intuitions  have  been  recognized  as  a  divine  act 
of  his  infinite  nature  and  he  has  been  confessed 
as  no  mere  prophet  of  truth,  but  as  himself  the 
Truth,  as  he  is  the  Way  and  the  Life,  that  saints 
have  arisen  in  the  church  whose  holy  character 
has  excited  the  mingled  reverence  and  awe  of 
men.  Nor  have  such  men  lost  themselves  in  the 
vagaries  of  mysticism,  for  the  great  saints  have 
been  the  great  theologians, — Augustine,  Bernard 
of  Clairvaux,  Edwards, — as  well  as  the  great 
mystics.  The  ages  of  the  adoration  of  Christ 
have  been  the  ages  in  which  the  greatest  hymns 
have  been  produced,  for  our  greatest  hymns  are 
hymns  to  Christ ;  and  they  have  been  the  greatest 
ages  of  missionary  advance  abroad  and  of  church 
consolidation  at  home.  The  deepest  significance 
attaches  to  the  fact  that  in  the  Nicene  age,  Con- 
stantine,  the  founder  of  a  new  empire,  put  the 
cross  before  his  legions  as  their  sign  of  conquest, 
and  that  our  American  Nicene  age,  the  beginning 
of  this  old  and  now  passing  nineteenth  century, 
saw  both  the  most  vigorous  defence  of  the  true 
deity  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  most  vigorous 
and  successful  preaching  of  salvation  by  his 
name,  and  the  inauguration  and  early  triumphs 
of  American  missions  among  the  heathen.     The 


184        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

conquering  cross  is  the  sign  of  every  Christian 
victory. 

But  it  is  the  cross.  The  crown  of  kingship 
visible  to  men  was  a  crown  of  thorns,  the  only 
throne  ascended  by  the  king  upon  earth  was  the 
altar  of  sacrifice.  As  human  worship  has  gath- 
ered about  Calvary,  and  the  crucified  Redeemer 
been  the  object  of  the  faith  and  flaming  devotion 
and  adoration  of  men,  so  our  theme,  the  person 
of  Christ,  is  not  complete  till  in  the  cross  we 
contemplate  also  his  work:  which  theme  shall 
form  the  subject  of  our  next  lecture. 


LECTURE  V 

THE  WORK  OF  CHRIST 

Our  last  lecture  brought  us  before  the  cross  of 
Christ.  The  topic  thus  thrust  upon  us  as  the  nec- 
essary completion  of  the  work  already  underta- 
ken is,  at  the  same  time,  the '  next  step  in  our 
larger  task.  The  work  of  Christ  centers  where 
worship  has  contemplated  it,  in  the  cross ;  but  we 
must  postpone  the  direct  treatment  of  this  portion 
of  the  theme  till  we  have  prepared  the  way  by 
a  beginning  at  a  remoter  point. 

That  point  is  Christ's  work  of  revelation.  He 
reveals  God.  This  is  an  objective  fact.  When 
the  analysis  of  the  motives  operating  upon  the 
soul  in  conversion  was  performed,  we  saw  how 
they  came  from  Christ,  and  how  the  same  line  of 
proof  which  ascribed  them  to  a  divine  personali- 
ty, made  Christ  himself  divine.  Thus  he  is  God 
for  us,  in  our  experience;  and  thus  the  God 
known  by  us,  the  God  revealed.  His  life  and 
words  are  the  revelation  of  duty.  And,  as  he  is 
more  fully  known,  and  in  the  later  experience  of 
the  Christian  is  taken  as  daily  teacher  through  the 
written  record  of  his  earthly  ministry,  and 
through  the  agency  of  a  present  and  guiding 
i8s 


1 86  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
Spirit,  who  unfolds  to  us  his  meaning  (Jn.  xvi.  13, 
14),  he  reveals  to  us  many  things  more,  the 
things  which  "  eye  hath  not  seen,  ....  which 
God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him." 
Thus  is  exempHfied — I  will  not  say  justified,  for 
it  is  a  justification  by  experience,  a  true  exempli- 
fication— the  claim  to  be  the  Truth  itself  which 
our  Lord,  with  either  the  simplicity  of  absolute 
veracity,  or  with  the  most  astounding  blasphemy 
made  for  himself.  ''Aiit  Deus,  aut  homo  non 
bonus"  He  speaks  with  the  knowledge  of  one 
who  came  from  Heaven  (Jn.  iii.  31),  out  of  the 
memories  of  converse  with  the  Father  (iii.  32, 
v.  20),  of  what  he  has  known  by  divine  intuition 
(iii.  II,  viii.  38),  because  he  himself  knows 
(viii.  40)  and  is  Light  (i.  4)  and  Truth  (xiv.  6). 
He  claims  most  immediate  acceptance  (iii.  16) 
and  unreserved  obedience  (xiv.15)  for  his  mes- 
sage. Nothing  is  to  be  preferred  to  him  and  his 
commands  (Matt.  x.  37).  He  speaks  "  with  au- 
thority "  (vii.  29),  as  one  requiring  no  support 
from  others  and  leaving  no  room  for  question  and 
contradiction.  No  teaching  could  be  more  abso- 
lute or  more  clothed  with  the  forms  and  claims 
of  a  final  authority.  And,  being  what  he  is  to 
Christian  experience,  he  could  teach  in  no  other 
way.  What  he  himself  says  is,  therefore,  in  the 
form  in  which  it  is  handed  down  to  us  in  the  Bi- 
ble, God's  word,  the  very  truth  of  the  living  and 
present  God. 

When  the  Christian  reads  the  Old  Testament, 


The  Work  of  Christ  187 

which  is,  of  course,  not  the  record  of  the  teach- 
ings of  the  historical  Christ,  he  finds  them  to  be 
more  than  the  mere  teachings  of  a  Moses,  a  Da- 
vid, and  an  Isaiah.  Paul  saw  this,  and  said  that 
Israel  drank  in  the  wilderness  of  the  "  spiritual 
Rock,  that  followed  them,  and  that  Rock  was 
Christ  ".  We  meet  in  those  old  pages  with  what 
I  may  call  the  essential  Christ,  the  eternal  Christ, 
who  manifests  himself  by  the  character  of  his 
shining  works,  just  as  he  shows  what  he  is  in  our 
conversion  by  the  divine  beauty  and  glory  of  all 
his  operation  upon  us.  In  the  darkness  of  a  peo- 
ple just  come  out  of  slavery  under  a  pagan  civili- 
zation, beneath  the  awful  rocks  of  Sinai,  we  hear 
the  accents  of  Calvary  in  that  marvellous  procla- 
mation :  "  Jehovah,  Jehovah,  a  God  merciful  and 
gracious,  slow  to  anger  and  abundant  in  loving 
kindness  and  truth;  keeping  loving  kindness  for 
thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression 
and  sin;  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty  "  (Ex.  xxxiv.  (i,j).  The  voice  that  sum- 
marizes the  law  in  the  two  precepts :  "  Thou  shalt 
love  Jehovah  thy  God,  with  all  thy  heart"  (Dt. 
vi.  5),  and  "thy  neighbor  as  thyself"  (Lev. 
xix.  18),  is  Christ's  whether  heard  in  the  Old 
Testament  or  the  New  (Matt.  xxii.  37-9).  All  the 
preaching  of  repentance  by  the  prophets  is  his 
preaching,  whose  first  sermon  in  Galilee  was, 
"  Repent  ye ;  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand."  And  that  long  prophecy  of  the  Messiah, 
that  gradual  rise  of  the  Messianic  ideal  and  con- 


1 88        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

sciousness  of  the  people,  the  successive  steps  by 
which  the  mere  earthly  descendant  of  David  was 
replaced  by  a  King  of  greater  splendor  than  any 
mere  man  could  wear,  and  by  which  the  hints  of 
sorrow  and  the  lesson  of  the  discipline  of  human- 
ity scattered  through  the  sacred  history  got  their 
final  culmination  and  interpretation  in  the  fifty- 
third  of  Isaiah,  with  its  picture  of  glory  by  the 
way  of  suffering  and  kingship  through  sacrifice, 
— that  exhibits  the  touch  of  him  who  knew  the 
end  from  the  beginning  and  was  the  "  Lamb  slain 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  The  "  Spirit 
of  Christ  in  "  the  prophets  "  testified  "  ( i  Pet. 
i.  II ),  and  thus  their  words  are  the  words  of 
Christ.  And  in  the  epistles  and  prophecy  of  the 
New  Testament  the  same  thing  appears.  The 
promise  of  the  last  discourse  ( Jn.  xvi.  13)  was  ful- 
filled so  that  Paul  could  say,  "  We  have  the  mind 
of  Christ";  which  mind  is  clear  to  the  eye  of 
Christian  experience  in  the  preeminence  which 
New  Testament  Scripture,  like  experience  itself, 
gives  to  Christ,  the  central  figure  both  of  the  re- 
newal of  the  soul  and  of  the  progress  of  the 
Christian  life.  It  is,  therefore,  not  essential  to 
emphasize  the  claims  of  apostles  and  prophets  to 
speak  with  authority,  to  lay  overmuch  weight 
upon  their  verbal  forms  of  expression,  on  their 
declarations  that  thus  and  thus  "  saith  the  Lord  ", 
on  their  anathemas  uttered  against  the  preacher 
of  any  other  gospel,  though  he  were  an  "  angel 
from  heaven  ",  for  these  things  concern  more 


The  Work  of  Christ  189 

them  whose  ears  have  not  been  opened.  The  es- 
sential teaching  of  Christ  is  throughout  the  Bible, 
and  where  the  teaching  is,  there  is  the  essential 
Christ,  there  God,  and  there  the  authority  of  God 
speaking  to  his  creature  man,  and  to  his  new- 
created  child. 

This  is  the  developed  "  testimony  of  the  Spirit 
to  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  "  which  has  been 
already  adduced  as  proof  of  a  higher  character  in 
the  Bible  than  that  of  a  mere  record  of  Christian 
experience.  The  Bible  is  now  seen  to  be  perme- 
ated with  the  teaching  of  Christ,  and  this  teaching 
possesses  divine  authority.  Thus  experience  has 
carried  us  beyond  experience.  Experience  gives 
us  the  authority  of  Christ,  and  the  authority  of 
Christ  is  the  authority  of  the  vehicle  of  his  pre- 
incarnate  and  post-incarnate  teaching. 

Our  object  in  these  lectures  is,  however,  scien- 
tific accuracy  of  reasoning  and  of  statement.  Not 
the  popular  and  general  form  of  definition  and 
proof,  but  only  the  close,  exact,  formal,  and  justi- 
fied, can  answer  our  present  purpose.  We  are 
required,  therefore,  to  scrutinize  our  position  with 
the  eye  of  a  critic  possibly  hostile  to  us,  and  sat- 
isfy his  reasonable  demands  upon  us. 

Our  former  argument  was  simple.  Certain  vi- 
tal truths  were  made  known  to  us  in  the  experi- 
ence of  the  new  birth  as  indisputably  certain.  We 
found  our  knowledge  of  them  to  be  grounded  in 
the  action  of  God  upon  us.  We  then  found  the 
same  truths  in  the  Bible  as  its  central  and  dis- 


190        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

tinguishing  portion.  We  ascribed  to  these  truths 
in  the  Bible  the  same  divine  origin  they  had  had 
in  our  experience.  But  now,  further  analysis  has 
given  us  further  truth  and  particularly  this,  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ.  The  Bible  teaching  comes 
largely  from  him;  therefore,  so  far  as  it  does,  it 
is  divine.  And,  then,  by  anticipation  of  proofs 
which  are  yet  partly  to  be  delivered,  other  ele- 
ments of  experience  are  found  to  be  mirrored  in 
the  Bible,  till  the  general  inference  is  drawn  that 
whatever  is  in  the  Bible  will  be  found  to  be  di- 
vine. In  fact,  the  Bible  precedes  experience; 
and  Christian  faith,  taking  the  Bible  as  its  author- 
ity, and  receiving  its  teaching  as  true,  though 
their  truth  may  not  be  at  once  evident,  finds  them 
confirmed  by  experience,  by  the  perfection  with 
which  they  adjust  themselves  to  that  which  has 
been  already  accepted  and  become  certain.  Thus 
the  natural  supposition  at  any  point,  that  what 
has  so  far  been  found  true  will  be  found  so  still 
further,  is  justified,  and  the  Scriptures  are  re- 
ceived as  authoritative  as  a  whole. 

Now,  it  may  be  said,  as  was  briefly  noted  in  an 
earlier  lecture,  that  such  authority  is  no  authori- 
ty. The  argument  establishes  the  Bible  as  a  book 
of  experience,  but  not  as  an  authority  in  spheres 
into  which  experience  does  not  and  cannot  enter. 
Hence  I  am  never  brought  by  it  to  the  position 
where  I  am  ready  to  accept  what  the  Bible  says 
simply  because  it  says  it,  that  is,  to  a  recognition 
of  a  proper  biblical  authority.     The  Bible  remains 


The  Work  of  Christ  1 9 1 

in  some  respects  as  dependent  on  me  as  in  others 
I  am  dependent  upon  it.  We  are  now  prepared 
for  a  more  thorough  and  a  final  treatment  of  this 
objection. 

In  a  large  degree  the  objection  must  be  con- 
ceded ;  and  we  would  concede  it  immediately  and 
frankly.  The  argument  from  experience  is  not 
the  only  argument  as  to  the  Scriptures,  and  it  does 
not  profess  to  cover  all  the  ground  or  to  affirm 
anything  for  or  against  positions  which  are  not 
involved  in  its  own  line  of  proof.  It  will  still  re- 
main a  question,  after  experience  has  said  all  that 
it  has  to  say,  whether  scientific  and  historical 
matters  are,  or  are  not,  included  in  the  scope  of 
God's  purpose  in  reference  to  the  Bible  and  in 
the  consequent  authority  of  the  Bible.  That 
question  must  be  left  for  other  times.  The  ques- 
tion now  is  whether  in  realms  where  spiritual  ex- 
perience can  reach  and  testify,  in  the  realms  of 
religion  and  morals,  in  matters  pertaining  to  God 
and  our  duty  to  him,  the  Bible  has  authority. 
Whatever  must  be  believed  as  to  the  origin  of 
man  after  Genesis  teaches  he  was  "  created  "  and 
science  says  he  was  "  evolved  ",  our  present  ques- 
tion is  another,  viz.,  what  is  to  be  believed  when 
Jesus  says  that  the  wicked,  condemned  at  the  day 
of  judgment,  shall  go  away  into  "  everlasting 
punishment "  ?  Now,  at  this  point  and  others 
like  it,  so  far  as  the  implications  of  Christian  ex- 
perience are  concerned,  the  Bible  has  no  author- 
ity in  the  sense  of  being  an  outward  tribunal,  con- 


192  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
firmed  as  such  by  some  process  of  installation,  as 
a  judge  may  be  set  on  the  bench  by  royal  procla- 
mation, every  word  it  utters  being  thus  external- 
ly certified  as  divinely  empowered  to  teach;  but 
it  has  the  authority  of  probable  truth.  Each  par- 
ticular statement  is  to  be  believed  because  it  is  or- 
ganically associated  with  what  we  know  by  inde- 
pendent knowledge ;  because  it  proceeds  ultimate- 
ly from  a  person  whom  we  recognize  as  God ;  be- 
cause the  Bible  has  hitherto  led  us  along  a  path 
which  we  found  shining  with  increasing  light; 
and  because  we  may  reasonably  trust  it  further. 
It  has  all  the  authority  which  attaches  to  matters 
within  the  realm  of  probable  reasoning,  a  very 
high  degree  of  authority,  to  which  it  would  be 
most  unreasonable  to  refuse  recognition.  In  this 
sense  and  to  this  degree,  our  argument  does  es- 
tablish the  authority  of  the  Bible.  The  Christian 
will  continue  to  bow  to  it  when  he  cannot  see,  in 
the  future  as  in  the  past. 

A  very  shallow  objection  to  authority  in  relig- 
ion seems  to  prevail  in  certain  quarters.  It  seems 
to  be  thought  that  we  cannot  have  authority  here 
at  all  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case;  that  I 
must  be  able  to  see  conclusively  with  my  own 
mental  eyes  everything  which  I  believe,  and  can- 
not accept  the  testimony  of  any  one  for  what  I 
cannot  thus  see.  Only  self-digested  and  finally 
evident  truth  can  have  any  power  to  elicit  my  be- 
lief. It  is  not  necessary  to  refute  this  objection 
at  any  great  length.     The  practical  methods  of 


The  Work  of  Christ  193 

every  science  and  the  experience  of  every  day 
refute  it.  None  of  us  here  could  give  proof  of 
the  doctrine  of  gravitation  calculated  to  satisfy 
the  mind  of  a  Newton,  who  waited  years  before 
enunciating  it  because  the  moon  did  not  seem  to 
have  exactly  the  orbit  the  theory  required;  and 
yet  we  believe  it.  Every  scientific  observer  is 
daily  making  use  of  facts  as  the  basis  of  his  rea- 
sonings which  he  has  never  observed  himself  but 
only  received  by  the  report  of  others.  A  man 
may  certainly  believe  in  the  existence  of  angels 
upon  the  testimony  of  one  who  credibly  claims 
to  have  come  from  the  heavenly  world,  if  he  can 
in  that  of  the  ornithorhynchous  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  travellers.  Neither  principles  nor  facts, 
the  absolute  proof  of  which  is  beyond  me,  are 
thereby  debarred  from  entering  into  the  structure 
of  my  knowledge,  whether  of  natural  science  or 
of  theology. 

But  the  objection  may  be  put  in  a  more  subtile 
way.  It  may  be  said  that  the  witness  as  to  the 
existence  of  angels  is  in  no  way  like  him  who  tells 
me  that  there  is  a  duck-billed  oviparous  quadru- 
ped in  Tasmania  the  like  of  which  I  have  never 
seen.  This  witness  does  not  pretend  to  have 
gone  into  a  region  where  I  could  not  go.  He  de- 
scribes conditions  which  fit  a  portion  of  this 
earth.  He  cites  the  testimony  of  others,  or  he 
proves  his  general  credibility  by  his  characteris- 
tic conduct.  He  is  a  man  like  myself.  Whereas 
that  witness  from  heaven  is  unlike  me,  gives  no 


194        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

confirmation  of  his  report,  and  speaks  of  things 
which  in  no  way  fit  into  the  scheme  of  things  with 
which  I  am  already  famiHar.  He  must  be  be- 
lieved ultimately  as  a  matter  of  mere  authority  on 
his  part  and  of  mere  belief  on  mine ;  and  I  cannot 
thus  believe. 

Of  course  not ;  and  Christian  thinkers  make  no 
such  demand  upon  the  credulity  of  any  one. 
There  must  be  verification  for  the  claims  of  any 
witness.  I  must  be  able  to  see  for  myself  that  he 
is  worthy  of  credence.  He  must  in  some  sort  be 
of  my  kind,  speak  in  a  language  I  can  compre- 
hend, and  confirm  his  claims  by  facts  that  I  can 
myself  control.  But  every  one  of  these  things  is 
true  of  Jesus  Christ  according  to  the  argument 
sketched  in  this  discussion.  He  is  a  man  like 
me;  he  speaks  of  spiritual  realities  in  terms  ad- 
dressed to  me ;  and  he  confirms  his  nature  by  his 
works  in  my  inmost  soul.  Therefore  I  believe 
him  when  he  speaks  of  what  I  cannot  so  imme- 
diately test.  First  of  all,  I  believe  him;  belief  of 
his  words  follows  thereupon. 

But  the  Ritschlian  objection  still  remains.  Au- 
thority is  of  no  advantage  because  only  what  is 
seen  in  the  illumination  of  its  own  light  and 
thoroughly  comprehended  can  enter  into  the  re- 
ligious life,  since  this  is,  as  we  ourselves  are 
maintaining,  a  matter  of  experience.  We  meet 
this  position  by  entire  denial.  I  may  in  no  way 
see  the  proofs  of  gravitation  or  comprehend  it, 
but  if  I  believe  it,  even  if  only  in  the  form  that 


The  Work  of  Christ  195 

solid  bodies  have  weight,  that  beUef  will  have  the 
most  important  practical  consequences  for  my 
daily  life.  And  thus,  the  fear  of  a  future  judg- 
ment accepted  on  the  mere  authority  of  Christ, 
might  have  a  decisive  effect  in  strengthening 
and  establishing  my  choice  of  virtue  and  my  loy- 
alty to  God.  It  may  heighten  my  view  of  his 
character  and  thus  contribute  to  my  love  for  him, 
though  I  may  not  be  able  to  understand  it  in  all 
its  relations.  This  contention  is  against  per- 
ceived facts  of  the  Christian  life. 

In  antithesis,  then,  to  all  these  various  conten- 
tions, we  have  reached  a  true  biblical  authority, 
the  conviction  derived  from  Christian  experience 
that  the  Bible  as  a  whole,  in  the  realms  to  which 
alone  experience  can  give  testimony,  and  which 
alone  are  of  present  importance  to  us,  is  trust- 
worthy as  a  guide  to  the  truth.  It  is  to  be  be- 
lieved at  any  given  point  because  it  is  generally 
credible,  and  until  evidence  shall  be  presented 
that  at  this  point  it  is  not  credible;  and,  experi- 
ence having  as  yet  found  no  such  error,  its  entire 
credibility  is  enhanced  by  all  the  details  of  the 
experiential  examination.  Experience  has,  there- 
fore, now  led  us  far  beyond  our  original  position 
that  the  Bible  was  valuable  as  a  book  of  experi- 
ence. It  has  given  to  us  a  book  of  instruction; 
and  hence  all  that  it  teaches  may  now  be  said  to 
be  the  teaching  of  Christian  experience.  Every 
bibHcal  doctrine  becomes  thus,  in  a  secondary 
sense,  an  experiential  doctrine.    And  experience 


196        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

coming  in,  as  it  does,  to  support  the  biblical  doc- 
trines in  every  case,  confirms  by  the  verification 
obtained  through  the  experimental  test  what  it 
has  by  another  method  already  given.  The  proof 
of  the  last  statement  is  the  experiential  examina- 
tion of  the  entire  system  of  evangelical  doctrine. 

We  turn  now  from  this  first  branch  of  the 
work  of  Christ,  that  of  revelation,  to  the  second, 
that  of  atonement.  The  paradox  involved  in  for- 
giveness was  perceived  by  the  Christian  at  the 
moment  of  his  conversion.  He  had  known  God 
as  a  lawgiver,  condemning  sin,  and  now  he  found 
him  forgiving  sin,  and  in  this  seemed  to  perceive, 
contradiction.  Sometimes  in  the  stress  of  ago- 
nized conviction  sinners  have  refused  to  believe 
that  forgiveness  is  possible,  despairing  of  the 
good  news  of  the  gospel  because  it  is  so  good. 
Their  sense  of  the  justice  of  God  outweighs  their 
belief  in  his  goodness.  And,  however  certain  the 
practical  solution  gained  by  the  experience  of  for- 
giveness, the  intellectual  difficulty  remains,  and 
can  only  be  removed  by  an  intellectual  process. 
Hence  the  problem  is  one  for  Christian  thought ; 
but  thought  here,  as  well  as  in  other  realms  which 
we  have  traversed,  must  be  illuminated  by  expe- 
rience, and  will  have  to  engage  itself  largely  with 
the  materials  furnished  by  experience,  if  it  is  to 
give  the  most  satisfactory  solution. 

We  begin,  therefore,  this  most  eminently  intel- 
lectual branch  of  our  theme  with  the  enquiry  how. 


The  Work  of  Christ  1 97 

in  fact,  the  Christian  reposes  on  the  Christ  in 
whom  he  believes  ?  In  what  aspect  is  this  Christ 
an  object  of  faith  and  an  accepted  Saviour?  The 
answer  is  simple  and  unquestionable, — Christ  is 
viewed  as  a  Saviour  because  he  is  the  lamb  of  Cal- 
vary. If  I  were  speaking  in  some  circles  I  might 
feel  called  upon  to  justify  this  remark,  for  some 
in  our  own  day  have  so  modified  our  inherited 
theology  as  to  remove  the  sacrificial  death  of 
Christ  from  the  central  point  it  occupies  in  the 
biblical  account  of  his  work,  and  their  Christian 
experience  may  not  seem  to  include  the  element 
they  have  banished  from  their  theology.  But  for 
the  present  this  may  safely  be  dismissed  as  a  case 
of  abnormal  experience.  It  is  too  remote  from 
biblical  standards  and  from  the  general  belief  and 
attitude  of  the  historical  church  to  need  very 
much  discussion.  Paul's  preaching  was  "  the 
word  of  the  cross  " :  he  presented  "  Jesus  Christ 
and  him  crucified  " :  Christ  himself  said  he  "  came 
to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many  " :  and  John 
the  Baptist  when  introducing  him  to  the  people 
of  Israel  summed  up  his  whole  character  and 
work  in  the  pregnant  phrase  taken  from  the  fifty- 
third  of  Isaiah,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  which 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ".  About  the 
cross  have  therefore  centered  both  the  faith  and 
worship  of  the  Christian  church.  For  unnum- 
bered centuries  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  has  prayed : 
*'  O  Lord  God,  Lamb  of  God,  Son  of  the  Father, 
that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  have 


198        Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
mercy  on  us  " ;  and  when  the  Reformers  broke 
away  from  the  ancient  church  they  continued  to 
sing, 

"  O  sacred  Head,  now  wounded 
'Tis  I  deserve  thy  place; 
Look  on  me  with  thy  favor, 
Vouchsafe  to  me  thy  grace  "  ;* 

and  even  the  Puritan,  who  was  literally  as  well  as 
figuratively  an  iconoclast,  wrote  and  sung,  as  his 
most  beautiful  hymn, 

"When  I  survey  the  wondrous  cross 
On  which  the  Prince  of  Glory  died".' 

In  this  work  of  Christ  Christians  have  always 
seen  something  entirely  unique,  something  done 
for  man  entirely  beyond  man's  powers,  and  indis- 
pensable to  his  salvation.  He  becomes  our  Sa- 
viour because  he  does  for  us  that  which  we  cannot 
do  for  ourselves.  True,  in  our  own  day,  some 
have  used  phrases  which  carry  an  implicit  denial 
of  this  view,  as  when  we  are  told  that  we  are  to 
do  after  him  what  he  has  done  before  us ;  but  one 
cannot  believe  that  these  words  are  intended  to  be 
applied  to  the  sacrificial  death  of  Christ,  or  at 
least  not  in  their  full  meaning.  There  is,  of 
course,  a  sense  in  which  the  Christian  must  imi- 
tate Christ's  death,  for  he  is  "  to  take  up  his  cross 
daily  "  and  follow  his  Master ;  but  in  its  highest 
meaning  and  fullest  scope  the  death  of  Christ  is 

*Paul  Gerhardt,  1656. 
"Isaac  Watts,  1707. 


The  Work  of  Christ  1 99 

no  more  an  object  set  for  our  imitation  than  the 
creation  of  the  world.  Christ  is  the  divine  Sa- 
viour, and  nowhere  more  divine  than  in  the  pre- 
cise work  of  salvation.  He  comes  for  the  rescue 
of  the  absolutely  lost :  he  does  for  them  that  which 
they  are  absolutely  incapable  of  doing  for  them- 
selves :  he  lays  the  foundation  for  their  salvation 
by  his  death ;  and  thus  he  performs  therein  a  work 
peculiar  to  himself  and  absolutely  unique  in  the 
whole  history  of  the  universe.  These  are  the 
simplest  and  most  ultimate  elements  of  the  Chris- 
tian's view  of  his  Lord. 

Christian  experience  thus  separates  fundamen- 
tally from  those  who  see  no  peculiar  work 
wrought  by  the  death  of  Christ,  and  sets  such  a 
construction  aside  as  entirely  un-Christian.  It 
separates  as  really  from  all  those  who  see  in  that 
great  tragedy  nothing  but  the  death  of  a  martyr 
bearing  testimony  to  the  truth  he  had  preached. 
This  view  has  lately  gained  much  currency  in 
certain  quarters  even  among  those  who  think  that 
they  still  maintain  the  true  deity  of  Christ;  but 
it  is  essentially  a  Unitarian  position.  If  Christ 
died  as  a  martyr,  why  did  he  live  as  a  God?  Oc- 
casionally we  hear  explanations  of  his  divinity 
from  the  advocates  of  a  subjective  moral  theory 
of  the  atonement  that  he  had  God  in  him  just  as 
all  good  men  have,  except  in  greater  degree.  Here 
the  denial  of  deity  has  consistently  followed  the 
denial  of  a  divine  work.  It  is  true  that  Christ 
did  die  as  a  martyr,  as  it  is  that  he  was  a  prophet, 


200        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  given  him  "  without 
measure  " ;  but  he  was  also  a  priest,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  victim,  who  came  to  take  away  sins 
by  the  offering  of  himself,  and  he  made  this  of- 
fering through  an  Eternal  Spirit.  With  none  of 
these  facts  can  the  moral  theory  be  made  harmo- 
nious except  by  processes  of  verbal  juggling  that 
may  have  interest  for  men  who  enjoy  play  with 
words,  but  have  no  interest  for  a  great  church 
faced  with  the  awful  situation  of  a  perishing 
world  and  entrusted  with  a  gospel  of  salvation. 
While  this  church  has  never  forgotten  that  the 
most  moving  display  of  the  divine  perfections 
was  made  upon  Calvary,  and  thus  never  ceased  to 
do  justice  to  the  truth  conveyed  by  the  moral 
theory,  it  has  always  designated  the  people  of 
Christ  as  those  "  redeemed  by  his  precious 
blood."^ 

If  I  have  failed  to  carry  any  of  my  audience 
with  me  in  this  contention,  I  must  leave  the  sub- 
ject for  their  own  meditations,  and  cannot  doubt 
that  if  they  seriously  test  their  own  experience  by 
that  of  the  whole  church,  they  will  finally  come  to 
the  recognition  of  an  objective  atonement 
wrought  on  Calvary.  That  test  is  to  be  rigor- 
ously applied  in  the  sequel  of  the  present  lecture. 
For  now,  therefore,  we  shall  regard  our  brief  re- 
view of  the  case  sufficient,  and  lay  down,  as  the 
foundation   of   our   next   discussion,   the   simple 

*  The  Te  Deum,  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  creeds. 


The  Work  of  Christ  201 

proposition  that  Christ  does  for  man  in  his  sacri- 
fice what  man  could  not  do  for  himself. 

And  now,  what  does  Christian  experience  see 
in  that  sacrificial  death? 

I  must  ask  you  here  to  look  in  upon  your  own 
souls  as  I  speak.  I  shall  describe  what  I  myself 
see  in  the  Calvary,  and  I  must  rely  upon  the  coop- 
eration of  each  one  of  you  for  whatever  of  illumi- 
nating or  convincing  power  my  presentation  may 
attain.  Each  of  you  must  ask  himself,  What  do 
I  see?  What  has  really  imprinted  itself  upon 
my  soul  as  the  total  effect  of  all  my  experience 
and  as  my  view  of  him  when  he  dies  for  me  ? 

I  once  came  across  a  picture  of  the  crucifixion 
by  some  Spanish  artist  which  had  wandered  over 
the  ocean  to  be  exhibited  at  the  great  Chicago  ex- 
position. It  was  a  realistic  picture.  There  was 
nothing  of  the  ecclesiastical  conventionality  of 
Catholic  art  about  it.  It  presented  the  Saviour 
as  he  may  have  looked  hanging  on  the  literal 
cross  near  twenty  centuries  ago.  On  his  head 
was  the  crown  of  thorns,  and  splashes  of  blood 
had  fallen  from  its  wounds  upon  his  cheeks  and 
shouders  and  breasts,  and  lay  there  in  darkening 
crimson.  From  the  nails  through  his  palms, 
strained  and  torn  and  bloody,  his  body  hung, 
sunk  down  in  utter  exhaustion,  drawn  and  labor- 
ing for  breath.  But  his  head  was  partially  raised, 
and  while  his  eyes  were  closed  as  if  their  sight 
failed  and  about  him  the  shadows  of  night  had 
already  gathered,  his  mouth  was  feebly  opened 


202        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

as  if  for  the  scarce  articulate  cry,  "  My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  It  was  a 
picture  to  afflict  with  horror  and  to  fill  with  awe. 
But  as  I  looked,  I  seemed  to  see  certain  things. 
What  do  you  see  ? 

I.  The  Christian  sees  in  the  death  of  Christ 
the  magnitude  of  the  guilt  of  sin.  If  Christ  were 
viewed  simply  as  an  innocent  sufferer,  the  ques- 
tion would  be  borne  home  upon  the  mind  with 
great  force,  Why  so  gre.at  suffering?  But  when 
he  is  viewed  as  suffering  for  us,  and  it  is  under- 
stood that  our  sins  nailed  him  to  the  tree,  the 
magnitude  of  the  suffering  estimated  in  the  light 
of  his  person,  the  greatness  of  the  violence  done 
to  him  who  was  not  only  guiltless  and  so  deserv- 
ing nothing  of  pain,  but  also  infinite  God  and  so 
deserving  of  every  honor  and  of  all  holy  happi- 
ness, magnifies  the  evil  for  which  it  was  borne. 
What  does  God  think  of  sin  ?  He  who  would  not 
suffer  even  his  only-begotten  Son  to  come  into  the 
world  and  become  involved  in  its  history,  though 
sinless,  without  being  involved  also  in  the  penalty 
of  sin,  the  suffering  of  death,  must  have  an  in- 
finite disapproval  of  that  which  he  has  thus  per- 
manently and  unchangeably  marked  with  pain 
and  loss.  Certainly  God  is  not  indifferent  to  sin ! 
Forgiveness  cannot  come  out  of  any  light  esti- 
mate of  it,  from  any  forgetfulness  of  that  law 
written  in  conscience,  from  fickle  change  of  pur- 
pose, or  from  anything  undivine  and  unworthy  of 
an  infinite  and  infinitely  holy  God;  for  with  the 


The  Work  of  Christ  203 

forgiveness  is  thus  ever  bound  up  the  eternal  tes- 
timony of  the  cross  against  sin. 

2.  The  sight  of  Calvary  intensifies  the  Chris- 
tian's self-condemnation.  Was  this  for  me? 
Have  I  led  to  all  this  by  my  sin?  Have 
I  not  only  set  myself  against  the  will  of 
God  and  spread  abroad  ruinous  influences  among 
men,  as  I  know  I  have,  but  have  I  occasioned 
such  suffering  by  such  a  one?  Then  no  words 
can  express  my  true  fault,  as  none  can  measure 
the  greatness  of  this  sufferer.^ 

*  In  Gerhardt's  hymn,  cited  above,  which  was  origin- 
ally written  by  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  (iogi-1153),  a 
saint  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  we  read: 

"  What  thou,  my  Lord,  hast  suffered 
Was  all  for  sinners'  gain; 
Mine,   mine  was  the  transgression, 
But  thine  the  deadly  pain." 

F.  W.  Faber  writes  in  1849: 

"  O  love  of  God !    O  sin  of  man ! 

In  this  dread  act  your  strength  is  tried, 
And  victory  remains  with  love. 
For  Thou  our  Lord  art  crucified." 

Another  Catholic,  Da  Todi  (1306),  as  translated  by  a 
Presbyterian,  J.  W.  Alexander  (1842),  writes  in  the 
famous  Stabat  Mater: 

"'Twas  our  sins  brought  him  from  heaven; 
These  the  cruel  nails  had  driven; 
All  his  griefs  for  us  were  borne." 


204        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

3.  Whatever  the  obstacle  to  forgiveness  may 
be,  the  impression  is  made  by  the  death  of  Christ, 
that  here  is  an  adequate  remedy.  Indeed,  the 
weight  of  the  impression  is  not  on  the  adequacy 
of  the  remedy:  of  course  this  is  adequate,  for 
greater  remedy  than  the  suffering  of  the  innocent 
Son  of  God  cannot  be  imagined.  The  mind 
views  this  at  once  as  beyond  question,  and  by 
reaction  spends  its  entire  force  of  reflection  upon 
the  thing  remedied,  on  the  greatness  of  the  ob- 
stacle thus  illustrated.  In  what  does  that  lie? 
Partly  at  least,  where  experience  has  already 
found  it,  in  the  law  of  God  which  threatens  a 
penalty  that  by  forgiveness  is  ever  uninflicted. 
But  this  obstacle  is  abundantly  met,  for  no  known 
object  of  law, — whether  to  display  God's  right- 
eousness, to  prevent  the  sin  of  man,  or  to  provoke 
man  to  positive  deeds  of  holiness, — could  be  bet- 
ter gained  than  by  Calvary  when  its  great  event 
is  understood  to  be  connected  with  the  sin  of  man. 
Who  will  sin  carelessly  that  looks  upon  Calvary  ? 
Who  will  trifle  with  a  God  that  afflicts  for  the 
sin  of  man  even  his  own  Son?    Who  doubt  the 

A.  T.  Russell  (1851)  wrote: 

"Ah,  Lord,  our  sins  arraigned  thee 
And  nailed  thee  to  the  tree." 

And  so,  with  innumerable  examples,  the  position  could 
be  made  impregnable,  if  it  needed  it,  that  Christians  of 
all  ages  and  churches  have  seen  their  own  sins  in  the 
light  of  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary. 


The  Work  of  Christ  205 

infinite  meaning  and  worth  of  a  law  thus  sus- 
tained, and  of  the  holiness  it  demands  ?  Thus,  if 
the  obstacle  be  in  the  law,  it  is  perfectly  removed 
by  the  suffering  of  Calvary.  Indeed,  in  some  re- 
spects the  law  is  more  highly  honored  by  the 
death  of  Christ  than  it  would  be  by  the  punish- 
ment of  the  guilty.  For,  if  it  were  possible  to 
suspect  that  punishment  might  be  inflicted  by 
some  mechanical  contrivance  and  in  some  routine 
spirit,  or  in  real  indifference  to  the  great  things 
the  law  sets  forth,  when  the  punishment  fell  on 
the  guilty  parties  who  could  perhaps  not  interest 
God  much,  on  account  of  their  very  wickedness, 
there  can  be  no  possibility  of  doubting  God's  in- 
finite earnestness  and  profound  interest  in  every- 
thing involved  in  the  law,  when  instead  of  letting 
men  who  have  sinned  go  free  on  mere  repentance, 
he  has  inflicted  first,  as  the  price  of  their  redemp- 
tion, such  a  chastisement  upon  his  own  Son, 
which  is  as  if  he  had  borne  it  upon  the  quivering 
strings  of  his  own  heart, — as  without  much  fig- 
ure of  speech,  he  may  be  said  truly  to  have  done. 
4.  Thus  the  sacrifice  magnifies  righteousness, 
guilt,  penalty,  law,  love,  forgiveness;  and  thus 
the  Christian  experiences  a  peculiar  satisfaction 
in  contemplating  his  salvation  as  arising  from  the 
cross.  Forgiveness  is  no  longer  a  mere  matter 
of  subjective  experience  or  certainty,  however 
well  founded  these  may  appear.  It  has  a  recog- 
nizable objective  ground.  The  peace  which  con- 
stitutes the  Christian's  sense  of  forgiveness  now; 


2o6  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
gains  in  solidity  and  permanency,  and  as  the  sin- 
ner puts  his  trust  in  Christ  as  his  Redeemer  he 
feel  a  new  joy  in  his  surrender  to  a  Victor  who 
in  triumphant  death  has  shown  himself  "  mighty 
to  save  ".  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  these 
inward  experiences  of  the  Christian  could  at  all 
take  place  without  their  objective  ground.  We 
may  not  be  able  to  say  they  could  not,  while 
speaking  from  the  point  of  view  of  mere  experi- 
ence; but  we  certainly  cannot  say  they  could. 
They  have  something  peculiarly  objective  about 
them.  ■  They  occur  though  the  soul  resists. 
While  the  sinner  still  condemns  himself,  he  finds 
peace;  while  he  still  fails  to  understand  that  he 
has  complied  with  the  conditions  of  salvation  and 
supposes  himself  to  be  still  under  the  wrath  of 
God,  he  finds  himself  calm  and  filled  with  joy,  un- 
able, indeed,  when  he  attempts  it,  to  call  back  his 
feelings  of  self-condemnation.  That  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  something  objective  in  its  origin, 
though  subjective  in  its  experience;  and  that  it 
could  occur  without  an  objective  ground — such  as 
is  the  sacrifice — is  beyond  the  power  of  experi- 
ence to  declare.  But,  however  this  may  be,  the 
confirmation  and  establishment  of  peace  in  the 
sacrifice  of  him  who  is  "  our  peace  "  is  the  indis- 
putable experience  of  the  church.^ 

*The  following  hymns  will  illustrate  this  statement. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  taking  them  as  I  have  from 
several  modern  hymn  books  in  common  use  in  American 
churches,  I  have  found  them  chiefly  not  under  the  head 


The  Work  of  Christ  207 

With  this  primary  result  of  Christian  experi- 
ence already  gained,  we  turn  to  the  Bible  for  con- 
firmation or  correction.  We  are  to  employ  it  as 
a  document  of  experience;  but  now,  after  its 
proper  authority  in  the  religious  sphere  has  been 
established,  we  are  to  view  it  as  more  than  this, 
as  a  standard  of  Christian  experience,  and  one  not 
merely  such  because  it  contains  the  original  doc- 
uments of  Christianity  but  because  it  is  the  me- 
dium of  revelation. 

Our  first  recourse  shall  be  to  the  sacrificial  sys- 

of  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  as  one  might  imagine,  but 
under  the  head  of  "  salvation  ".  We  see  thus  how  em- 
phatically "  salvation  "  is  to  the  Christian  salvation  by 
the  sacrifice  of  Calvary.  Note  also  the  differing  ages, 
schools  of  thought,  and  types  of  mind  suggested  by  the 
names  of  the  writers. 

Toplady  (Calvinist,  1776)  : 

"  Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring ; 
Simply  to  thy  cross  I  cling; 
Naked  come  to  thee  for  dress; 
Helpless,   look  to  thee  for  grace; 
Foul,  I  to  the  fountain  fly: 
Wash  me  Saviour,  or  I  die ! " 

Matthew  Bridges  (Roman  Catholic,  1848)  : 

"  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God ! 
Into  the  sacred  flood 
Of  thy  most  precious  blood 

My  soul  I  cast; 
Wash  me  and  make  me  clean  within. 
And  keep  me  pure  from  every  sin, 

Till  life  be  past." 


2o8  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
tern  of  the  Old  Testament,  for  Christ  indisputa- 
bly was  the  true  sacrifice  of  which  the  ancient 
sacrifices  were  types  and  prophecy.  Recent  in- 
terpretation of  this  system  has  been  largely  in- 
fluenced and  often  controlled  by  the  methods  of 
comparative  religion.  The  heathen  religions  of 
India,  China,  and  even  Egypt  have  been  searched, 
as  well  as  those  of  Greece  and  Rome,  for  light 

Dr.  Bonar  (Presbyterian,  1857)  : 

"  Thy  cross,  not  mine,  O  Christ, 

Has  borne  the  awful  load 
Of  sins  that  none  in  heaven 

Of  earth  could  bear  but  God. 
To  whom  save  thee,  who  canst  alone 
For  sin  atone.  Lord,  shall  I  flee? 

Thy  death,  not  mine,  O  Christ, 

Has  paid  the  ransom  due; 
Ten  thousand  deaths  like  mine 

Would  have  been  all  too  few. 
To  whom,  save  thee,  who  canst  alone 
For  sin  atone,  Lord,  shall  I  flee?" 

T.  H.  Gill  (Episcopalian,  1864) ;   from  the  hymn  be- 
ginning "  O  mystery  of  love  divine  "  : 

"For  thee  the  Father's  hidden  face? 

For  thee  the  bitter  cry? 
For  us  the  Father's  endless  grace. 

The  song  of  victory? 
Our  load  of  sin  and  misery 

Didst  thou,  the  sinless,  bear? 
Thy  spotless  robe  of  purity 

Do  we  the  sinners  wear  ?  " 


The  Work  of  Christ  209 

upon  the  true  nature  of  sacrifice,  and  the  conclu- 
sion has  generally  been  reached  that  sacrifices  are 
gifts  for  the  purpose  either  of  expressing  grati- 
tude or  of  purchasing  favor.  And  hence  it  has 
been  frequently  argued  that  the  biblical  sacrifices 
were  the  same,  and  particularly  that  they  were 
not  substitutionary.     Occasionally,  it  is  true,  such 

Sir  H.  W.  Baker  (Episcopalian,  1875) ;  from  the 
hymn  "  Oh  perfect  life  of  love  "  : 

"  And  on  his  thorn-crowned  head 
And  on  his  sinless  soul, 
Our  sins  in  all  their  guilt  were  laid, 
That  he  might  make  us  whole." 

Joseph  Grigg  (English  Presbyterian,  1765),  in  the 
hymn  "  Behold,   a  stranger  at  the  door  " : 

"  But  will  he  prove  a  friend  indeed  ? 
He  will;  the  very  friend  you  need; 
The  Friend  of  sinners — yes,  'tis  He, 
With  garments  dyed  on  Calvary." 

I  merely  mention  Cowper's  (Episcopalian,  1779) 
"  There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood " ;  Wesley's 
(Methodist,  1750)  "Blow  ye  the  trumpet,  blow",  with 
its  strain, 

*'  Extol  the  Lamb  of  God 
The  all-atoning  Lamb; 
Redemption  in  his  blood 
Throughout    the    world    proclaim ; " 

Haweis'  (Episcopalian,  1792)  "  From  the  cross  up- 
lifted high";  and  Montgomery's  (Moravian,  1819) 
"  Come  to  Calvary's  holy  Mountain,  Sinners  ruined  by 
the  fall ". 


2IO        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

investigators  have  seemed  to  see  that  the  Israel- 
itish  religion  was  peculiar  and  that  it  demanded  a 
study  by  itself  before  it  could  be  thus  summarily 
included  in  the  same  category  with  all  other  re- 
ligions. The  scientific  canon  that  each  particular 
must  be  carefully  examined  before  generalization 
formulates  the  logical  conclusion,  thus  met  with 
some  recognition;  but  the  recognition  has  gener- 
ally been  scant,  and  its  effect  upon  the  outcome 
inappreciable.  The  argument  has  too  often  re- 
mained, Because  India  offered  nothing  but  gifts 
to  its  gods,  Israel  offered  nothing  but  the  same 
to  Jehovah. 

Within  the  confines  of  the  Old  Testament  it- 
self a  similar  process  has  evacuated  its  most  dis- 
tinct utterances  of  their  meaning.  Because  a 
development  in  the  ideas  and  symbolic  rites  of 
Israel  can  be  traced  with  more  or  less  certainty, 
the  conclusion  has  been  drawn  that  the  later 
passages  which  yield  a  substitutionary  explana- 
tion of  sacrifice  were  dogmatic  and  ritual  addi- 
tions to  the  simpler  and  more  genuine  expressions 
of  the  original  piety  of  the  nation.  The  obscure 
has  been  preferred  to  the  plain,  doubtful  intima- 
tions read  between  the  lines  to  the  intended  mean- 
ing of  the  lines  themselves,  the  early  to  the  late, 
the  rudimentary  to  the  developed.  The  question 
has  been  whether  the  sacred  history  could  be  ex- 
plained upon  the  hypothesis  of  naturalistic  evolu- 
tion ;  and  when  an  affirmative  answer  has  been 
extorted  from  the  documents,  then,  because  the 


The  Work  of  Christ  2 1 1 

hypothesis  had  been  assumed  from  the  beginning 
to  be  true,  the  easy  results  of  such  a  criticism 
have  been  proclaimed  as  the  latest  scholarship. 

But  we  have  already  risen  above  the  plane  of 
this  argument  by  means  of  the  deliverances  of 
experience.  The  process  of  revelation  is  no 
mere  process  of  materialistic  evolution,  but  a  su- 
pernatural process.  Evolution  there  may  be; 
but  it  is  an  evolution  under  the  guidance  of  a  per- 
sonal God,  and  its  results,  its  latest  ideas  as  well 
as  its  earliest,  are  the  learning  of  those  who  were 
"  taught  of  God  ".  Viewed  as  a  divine  process, 
the  meaning  of  the  Old  Testament  revelation  as 
to  the  significance  of  sacrifices  is  easy. 

The  earliest  accounts  of  ritual  which  we  have, 
make  mention  of  the  imposition  of  hands  upon 
the  head  of  the  victim.  That  ceremony  remains 
totally  unexplained  except  that,  in  reference  to  the 
great  day  of  atonement,  there  is  an  explanation, 
when  by  the  same  gesture  and  by  distinct  con- 
fession the  sins  of  the  people  were  "  put  upon  the 
head  of  the  goat ",  to  be  borne  away  into  the  wil- 
derness. The  same  dim  intimation  that  the  victim 
took  the  place  of  the  sinner  was  made  in  the  ritual 
of  the  blood.  It  was  sacred  and  could  not  be 
used  as  food  because  "  the  life  was  in  it " ;  and 
this  vehicle  and  symbol  of  life,  when  the  victim 
had  been  slain,  was  to  be  poured  out  before  the 
Lord,  evidently  in  place  of  the  forfeited  life  of 
the  sinner  which  should  have  been  rendered  up. 

If  such  facts  as  these  admitted  any  other  ex- 


212        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

planation  when  taken  simply  by  themselves,  they 
admit  no  other  when  the  great  peculiarity  of  the 
Old  Testament  among  early  religious  books  is 
considered,  its  doctrine  of  sin.  There  is  no  such 
doctrine  in  Egypt,  India,  or  Greece.  If  it  began 
in  some  confusion  of  thought  between  the  moral 
and  the  ceremonial,  it  grew  in  clearness  of  con- 
ception and  expression,  till  it  was  understood  to 
be  the  breach  of  a  duty,  the  rupture  of  a  covenant 
obligation,  estrangement  of  heart  from  God,  the 
beginning  or  the  fulfillment  of  every  form  of  evil. 
Our  Christian  doctrine  of  sin  has  no  new  ele- 
ments, though  some  of  them  stand  out  in  clearer 
relief  against  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ. 
Responsibility,  liability  to  punishment,  real  guilt 
and  ill  desert, — these  are  its  deepest  elements,  and 
these  call  for  some  real  and  profound  remedy, 
such  as  the  ofiPering  of  life  for  life  indicates. 

Old  Testament  revelation  as  to  the  nature  of 
sacrifice  reaches  its  culmination  of  clearness  in 
one  passage  in  particular,  the  fifty-third  of  Isaiah. 
Here  the  suflfering  servant  of  Jehovah  is  said  to 
have  been  "  pierced  for  crimes  that  were  ours 
crushed  for  guilt  that  was  ours  " — and  "  Jehovah 
made  light  upon  him  the  guilt  of  us  all."  Says 
George  Adam  Smith :  "  Innocent  as  he  is,  he 
gives  his  life  as  a  satisfaction  to  the  divine  law 
for  the  guilt  of  his  people.  His  death  was  no 
mere  martyrdom  or  miscarriage  of  human  jus- 
tice :  in  God's  intent  and  purpose,  but  also  by  its 
own  voluntary  offering,  it  was  an  expiatory  sac- 


The  Work  of  Christ  213 

rifice.  There  is  no  exegete  but  agrees  to  this. 
By  his  death  the  Servant  did  homage  to  the  law 
of  God.  By  dying  for  it  he  made  men  feel  that 
the  supreme  end  of  man  was  to  own  that  law  and 
be  in  a  right  relation  to  it,  and  that  the  supreme 
service  was  to  help  others  to  a  right  relation."^ 

It  is  from  this  position,  gained  by  objective 
methods  of  interpretation  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, that  we  are  to  decide  on  the  relations  of 
Israel's  religion  to  those  of  the  great  heathen 
peoples, — and  we  shall  find  it  a  relation  of  em- 
phatic contrast.  Whatever  historical  critics  may 
say,  "  there  is  no  exegete  but  agrees  to  this  ", 
that  the  Old  Testament  sacrifices  are  substitution- 
ary. And  when  the  great  sacrifice  is  considered, 
that  is  a  substitution  such  as  no  "  bull  or  goat  '*, 
and  no  man  or  angel  could  make,  for  it  ic  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  infinite  Son  of  God  in  the  place 
of  a  guilty  race. 

I  add  another  quotation  from  Professor  Smith, 
for  in  a  remarkable  passage  he  brings  out  an  im- 
portant aspect  of  our  theme  generally  overlooked. 
He  says: — 

"  But  how  did  they  get  this  knowledge  [viz., 
that  the  Lord  laid  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all.]  ? 
They  do  not  describe  any  special  means  by  which 
it  came  to  them.  They  state  this  high  and  novel 
truth  simply  as  the  last  step  in  a  process  of  their 
consciousness.  At  first  they  were  bewildered  by 
the  Servant's  suffering ;  then  they  thought  it  con- 

* "  The  Book  of  Isaiah  ",  vol.  II,  p.  364. 


a  14        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

temptible,  thus  passing  on  it  an  intellectual  judg- 
ment; then,  forced  to  seek  a  moral  reason  for  it, 
they  accounted  it  as  penal  and  due  to  the  Servant 
for  his  own  sins;  then  they  recognized  that  its 
penalty  was  vicarious  and  that  the  Servant  was 
suffering  for  them;  and,  finally,  they  knew  that 
it  was  redemptive  and  the  means  of  their  own 
healing  and  peace.  This  is  a  natural  climax,  a 
logical  and  moral  progress  of  thought.  The  last 
two  steps  are  stated  simply  as  facts  of  experience 
following  upon  other  facts.  Now,  our  prophet 
usually  publishes  the  truths  with  which  he  is 
charged  as  the  very  words  of  God,  introducing 
them  with  a  solemn  and  authoritative  Thus 
saith  Jehovah.  But  this  novel  and  supreme  truth 
of  vicarious  and  redemptive  suffering,  this  pas- 
sion and  virtue  which  crowns  the  Servant's  of- 
fice, is  introduced  to  us,  not  by  the  mouth  of 
God,  but  by  the  lips  of  penitent  men;  not  as  an 
oracle  but  as  a  confession,  not  as  a  commission 
of  divine  authority,  laid  beforehand  on  the 
Servant  like  his  other  duties,  but  as  the  convic- 
tion of  the  human  conscience  after  the  servant 
has  been  lifted  up  before  it.  In  short,  by  this 
unusual  turn  of  his  art,  the  prophet  seeks  to  teach 
us  that  vicarious  suffering  is  not  a  dogmatic  but 
an  experimental  truth.  The  substitution  of  the 
Servant  for  the  guilty  people  and  the  redemptive 
force  of  that  substitution  are  no  arbitrary  doc- 
trine for  which  God  requires  from  man  a  mere 
intellectual  assent;  they  are  no  such  formal  in- 


The  Work  of  Christ  215 

stitutions  of  religion  as  mental  indolence  and  su- 
perstition delight  to  have  prepared  for  their  me- 
chanical adherence;  but  substitutive  suffering  is 
a  great  fact  of  human  experience  whose  outward 
features  are  not  more  evident  to  men's  eyes  than 
its  inner  meaning  is  appreciable  by  their  con- 
science and  of  irresistible  effect  upon  their  whole 
moral  nature."^ 

The  New  Testament  takes  up  the  doctrine 
where  the  Old  drops  it.  John  the  Baptist  intro- 
ducing Jesus  to  his  work,  commends  him  to  those 
who  became  his  chief  disciples  by  the  words: 
"  Behold,  the  Lamb  of  God  ",  by  which  direct 
reference  was  made  to  the  fifty-third  of  Isaiah. 
When  Jesus  himself  began  to  speak  of  his  char- 
acteristic work  it  was  with  the  phrase  "  the  Son 
of  Man  came  to  minister  and  to  give  his  life  a 
ransom  for  many"  (Mk.  x.  45).  The  phrase  is 
unexplained  by  its  context.  Who  is  redeemed? 
From  what  ?  To  whom  is  the  price  of  redemption 
paid  ?  No  answer  is  made  to  such  inquiries.  We 
are  left  long  without  any  indication  as  to  their 
proper  solution,  till  at  the  Last  Supper  our  Lord 
himself  again  speaks  of  his  death  and  this  time 
designates  his  blood  as  "  the  blood  of  the  new 
covenant  shed  for  many  unto  the  remission  of 
sins"  (Matt.  xxvi.  28).  He  thus  connects  his 
death  in  thought  with  the  ratification  of  the  cove- 
nant by  Moses  before  Sinai ;  and  as  that  was  by 
propitiatory    sacrifice,    securing    the    forgiveness 

*  Op.  cit.,  ibid.,  p.  353  f. 


ai6        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

of  sins  and  then  dedicating  the  redeemed  peo- 
ple (Ex.  xxiv.  5-8),  so  was  this.  Such  are  the 
fundamental  features  of  the  view  of  our  theme 
given  by  the  Synoptists.  The  Fourth  Gospel  adds 
definiteness  and  conclusiveness  to  their  expres- 
sions. In  that  early  discourse  with  Nicodemus  in 
which  our  Lord  emphasized  the  necessity  of  the 
new  birth,  and  set  forth  belief  in  himself  as  the 
condition  of  eternal  Hfe,  he  pointed  to  his  own 
death  by  "  lifting  up  "  as  the  ground  of  salvation. 
And  the  sixth  of  John,  with  its  emphasis  upon 
eating  his  flesh  and  drinking  his  blood,  which 
phrases  must  call  to  mind  the  ancient  form  of 
sacrifice  and  the  participation  therein  by  the  of- 
ferer at  the  sacrificial  meal,  confirms  this  inter- 
pretation. 

Such  was  the  view  which  Jesus  had  of  his  own 
death,  but,  of  course,  while  he  still  lived,  less  em- 
phasis could  be  laid  upon  it.  Once  crucified, 
the  meaning  of  the  crucifixion  must  become  an 
object  of  careful  consideration  by  the  disciples 
who  found  it  everywhere  flung  in  their  teeth  as 
the  great  disgrace  of  their  Master  and  the  great 
stumbling  block  in  the  way  of  accepting  his  doc- 
trines. Paul  leads  the  way  in  this  further  con- 
sideration. To  him  the  bloody  death  of  Christ 
was  a  "  propitiation ".  Libraries  of  discussion 
have  accumulated  about  this  word.  Amid  all 
the  impossible  and  extravagant  interpretations 
which  have  been  given  to  it,  the  direct  and  nat- 
ural one  remains  this,  that  something  was  thereby 


The  Work  of  Christ  2 1 7 

done  which  rendered  God  indined  to  pardon 
the  sinner.  The  unfounded  assumption  that,  if 
God  was  not  thus  inclined  without  the  death  of 
Christ,  he  must  be  malignantly  disposed  towards 
sinners,  has  caused  every  effort  to  be  made  to 
evacuate  the  word  propitiation  of  this  meaning. 
But  they  are  not  "  exegetical ".  We  might  say 
of  our  interpretation,  as  Adam  Smith  said  of  the 
interpretation  of  the  fifty-third  of  Isaiah :  "  There 
is  no  exegete  but  agrees  to  this."  And  the  idea 
is  abundantly  reenforced  in  the  context.  Pun- 
ishment is  the  proper  treatment  of  the  sinner,  for 
it  expresses  the  abhorrence  that  God,  as  a  being 
of  goodness  and  of  holy  character,  feels  towards 
sin.  Not  to  punish  is  to  seem  indifferent  towards 
sin,  and  this  is  to  permit  well-grounded  attack 
upon  character.  Such  is  the  Apostle's  represen- 
tation of  a  part,  at  least,  of  the  reason  of  the 
propitiation.  God  is  made  inclined  to  forgive 
sinners  by  the  sacrifice  because  his  righteousness 
was  exhibited  by  the  infliction  of  the  penalty  of 
sin;  but  not  because  he  needed  to  be  inclined  in 
heart  to  love  the  sinner  or  to  exercise  his  mercy. 
In  fact  it  was  he  himself  who  "  set  forth  Jesus  " 
as  a  propitiation. 

With  this  apostolic  view  all  the  remaining  New 
Testament  agrees.  Christ  is  made  a  "  curse " 
for  us,  and  made  "  sin  ",  that  is,  a  sin  offering. 
His  reconciliation  precedes  the  cessation  of  our 
"enmity"  (Ro.  v.  10).  In  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  in  particular  the  sacrificial,  propitiatory 


ai8        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

death  of  Christ  is  brought  out  in  clearest  light  as 
the  counterpart  and  fulfillment  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment sacrifices  as  a  whole.  And  John  closes  the 
presentation  by  calling  Christ  specifically  our 
"  propitiation  ". 

In  this  hasty  review  of  the  biblical  doctrine  as 
to  the  work  of  Christ  no  effort  has  been  made, 
of  course,  to  be  exhaustive,  or  to  formulate  a 
theory  of  the  atonement  which  should  satisfy  the 
full  meaning  of  the  biblical  passages  cited.  We 
have  been  looking  for  the  answer  to  a  compara- 
tively simple  question.  Certain  views  of  the  death 
of  Christ  suggested  by  Christian  experience  have 
been  brought  before  us — that  he  died  to  do  a 
work  for  us  which  we  are  entirely  incapable  of 
doing  for  ourselves,  that  he  thereby  magnified  the 
guilt  of  sin  and  maintained  the  honor  of  God  and 
of  his  law,  and  that  he  thus  laid  the  ground  for 
the  forgiveness  of  the  sinner  and  for  the  peculiar 
peace  which  he  feels  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
work  of  Christ  as  done  for  him ; — and  our  ques- 
tion has  been  whether  these  views,  elementary 
and  fundamental  to  the  Christian  Hfe,  as  well  as 
to  developed  Christian  thinking,  are  in  the  line 
of  universal  experience,  and  first  of  that  de- 
posited in  the  Scriptures.  Our  examination  has 
yielded  at  least  this,  that  they  are  found  in  line 
with  this  earliest  and  normal  experience.  We 
may  therefore  pass  immediately  to  the  question 
whether  they  are  found  equally  in  line  with  the 
course  of  subsequent   Christian  thinking,   and 


The  Work  of  Christ  219 

whether  they  have  for  them  the  verdict  of  Chris- 
tian history. 

The  earlier  intellectual  activity  of  the  church 
was  directed  to  other  topics  than  the  atoning 
work  of  Christ.  It  was  not  until  late  that  any 
one  appeared  to  give  careful  and  specific  atten- 
tion to  this  doctrine  and  to  set  it  in  its  place  as 
one  of  the  great  themes  of  Christian  study  and 
chief  topics  of  theology.  But  it  is  not  difficult 
to  decide  what  the  general  attitude  of  the  earlier 
ages  was  upon  the  central  element  of  the  doc- 
trine with  which  we  have  now  to  do.  The  con- 
ception that  Christ  did  something  for  us  which 
we  could  not  do  for  ourselves,  and  that  he  laid 
in  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary  the  objective  founda- 
tion of  our  forgiveness,  is  the  undisputed  premise 
from  which  all  that  can  be  styled  thought  or 
theory  in  this  period  goes  forth.  Some  of  these 
first  "  theories  "  border  upon  the  ludicrous,  as 
when  the  death  of  Christ  is  explained  as  a  pay- 
ment made  to  the  devil,  and  when  it  is  even 
added,  as  by  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  that  God  de- 
ceived the  devil  by  giving  him  a  being  as  a  ran- 
som for  the  sinner  which  he  was  not  able  to  hold, 
on  the  principle,  apparently,  that  all  is  fair  in 
war.  Athanasius  alone  of  all  the  early  fathers 
makes  any  adequate  and  dignified  explanation 
of  Christ's  work.  He  says  in  substance:  Death 
is  the  penalty  threatened  by  God  against  sin. 
It  must  be  inflicted,  or  God's  truthfulness  is  not 
maintained.    On  the  other  hand,  to  inflict  it  upon 


!220  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
all  sinners  would  be  to  destroy  the  race  which 
God  created  to  bestow  his  Word  upon  it.  Re- 
pentance can  only  effect  a  change  of  mind:  it 
cannot  release  the  sinner  from  the  penalty  of  the 
law  against  which  he  has  sinned.  Only  the 
Logos,  the  absolute  life,  can  do  this.  Accord- 
ingly, he  assumes  flesh,  endures  death,  and  thus 
suffers  in  the  place  of  man  the  penalty  of  the 
law.^ 

These  were  the  last  clear  words  upon  this 
theme  till  Anselm  of  Canterbury  published  his 
Cur  DexLs  Homo  (1098).  The  title  of  the  work 
was  not  hastily  chosen,  but  reflected  the  theo- 
logical necessity  of  the  time.  Never  yet  had  the 
various  elements  of  the  developing  system — the 
doctrine  of  the  two  natures  of  Christ,  of  sin  and 
grace,  and  the  great  fundamental  doctrine  of  the 
trinity — been  brought  into  a  perfectly  intelligible 
harmony  by  the  proposal  of  some  principle  which 
should  serve  as  their  common  explanation  and 
their  unifying  bond.  Anselm  found  this  desider- 
atum in  the  necessity  of  a  satisfaction.  His 
theory  in  few  words  was  this :  The  honor  of  God 
was  impaired  by  the  sin  of  man,  since  this  says 
that  God  is  not  God.  To  let  such  a  thing  stand 
unpunished  would  be  to  make  the  righteous  and 
the  unrighteous  equal  and  to  destroy  the  order 
of  the  universe,  making  God  the  God  of  disorder. 
This  God  can  no  more  do  than  he  can  lie.    Hence 

'  'ETtXtfpov  TO  6(pEi\6piEvov  iv  TO)  Bavdvop.  Quoted 
by  Thomasius,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i.  p.  389. 


The  Work  of  Christ  221 

sin  must  be  punished.  But  man  cannot  suffer 
this  due  punishment,  for  that  would  destroy  the 
race;  and  yet  a  man  must  suffer  it,  for  man 
sinned.  Some  infinite  being  must  suffer  it,  be- 
cause guih  is  infinite.  Therefore  the  necessity  of 
the  God-man,  the  question  propounded  in  the 
title  of  the  tract  thus  receiving  its  answer. 

The  further  development  of  the  theory  is  of 
less  importance  to  us  than  these  fundamental 
thoughts,  for  it  is  dependent  upon  the  current 
Catholic  theology  elaborated  in  the  confessional. 
It  defines  satisfactions,  and  supererogatory  works 
in  terms  neither  scriptural  nor  in  accord  with 
spiritual  Christianity.  Anselm,  like  every  other 
workman,  had  to  employ  the  tools  furnished  by 
his  age.  But  this  fundamental  Christian  thought, 
which  it  was  all  his  purpose  to  attempt  to  bring 
out,  that  there  was  a  great  objective  necessity 
calling  for  the  death  of  Christ  as  the  condition 
of  the  forgiveness  of  sinners,  was  the  legacy 
which  he  bequeathed  to  the  awakening  spirit 
which  four  centuries  later  introduced  the  scrip- 
tural period  of  Christian  theology.  He  does  not 
even  clearly  connect  the  death  of  Christ  with  the 
punishment  of  sin,  since  he  makes  it  a  supererog- 
atory work  voluntarily  done,  in  consequence  of 
which  it  is  "  fitting  "  that  forgiveness  should  be 
bestowed  upon  sinners.  But,  unsuccessful  as  the 
theory  is  in  these  and  many  other  respects,  it 
served  to  hand  down  to  later  theologians  the 
great  idea  of  the  objective  atonement. 


222        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

That  subsequent  age  was  not  without  sugges- 
tions of  another  kind  which  it  could  have 
adopted,  had  they  seemed  true.  Abelard,  in  par- 
ticular, was  rich  in  suggestions,  partly  true  and 
partly  false,  tending  on  the  whole  to  replace  the 
objective  atonement  by  a  subjective  one.  But  the 
Reformers  held  fast  to  the  Athanasian-Anselmic 
idea.  The  most  instructive  of  them  all  is  Calvin, 
who  in  his  Institutes,  in  the  last  edition,  set  forth 
a  more  consistent  form  of  the  doctrine  than  can 
be  found  in  any  predecessor. 

Calvin  will  never  be  understood  if  he  be  con- 
ceived as  a  scholastic,  who  adopted  some  leading 
principle  of  theology  which  he  applied  with  reck- 
less consistency  to  all  the  doctrines  of  the  Chris- 
tian system.  He  had,  no  doubt,  his  leading  the- 
ological ideas,  and  he  was  a  consistent  thinker; 
but  he  was  above  all  else  a  theologian  of  Scripture 
and  experience,  and  his  method  was  that  of  the 
interpreter,  and  hence  a  posteriori  rather  than  a 
priori.  Consequently  in  this  doctrine  he  does  not 
start  with  abstract  views  of  God  to  deduce  a  doc- 
trine of  atonement.  He  is  not  seeking  the 
"  necessity  "  which  Anselm  thought  he  must  at- 
tain. In  fact,  there  is  no  abstract  description  of 
the  attributes  of  God  to  be  found  anywhere  in  his 
treatise.  He  begins  with  the  facts  of  the  situation 
of  which  the  most  important  and  impressive  to 
his  thinking  is  the  guilt  and  ruin  of  man.  He 
thus  begins  where  Christian  experience  as  al- 
ready analyzed  in  these  lectures  begins,  and  his 


The  Work  of  Christ  223 

whole  development  of  the  theme  is  determined 
by  this  beginning.  Thus,  while  the  element  of 
the  moral  influence  of  the  death  of  Christ  in 
awakening  the  sinner  from  his  torpor  and  lead- 
ing him  to  repentance,  which  Abelard  had  in- 
troduced, finds  abundant  place  in  his  pages,  as  it 
must  in  the  preaching  of  every  evangelical  min- 
ister, it  receives  no  special  consideration  when 
Calvin  is  discussing  the  atonement.  The  holiness 
of  God  creates  "  a  perpetual  and  irreconcilable 
opposition  between  righteousness  and  iniquity  ".. 
so  that  "  he  cannot  receive  us  entirely  as  long  as 
we  remain  sinners  ".  This  is  the  permanent  and 
fundamental  ethical  necessity.  Hence  the  guilt 
of  man  must  be  in  some  way  removed,  and  the 
Scriptures  present  Christ  as  "  receiving  and  suf- 
fering in  his  own  person  the  punishment  which 
by  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  impended  over 
all  sinners  ".  By  this  act,  performed  in  his  vol- 
untary death,  "  he  has  expiated  those  crimes  ", 
and  "  by  this  expiation  God  the  Father  has  been 
satisfied  and  duly  atoned  ".^  This  is,  in  a  nut- 
shell, Calvin's  theory  of  the  atonement.  He  did 
not  fail  to  guard  his  doctrine  from  possible  mis- 
representations and  distortions.  While  God  is 
"  an  enemy  to  men  till  by  the  death  of  Christ 
they  are  restored  to  his  favor  ",  "  such  modes  of 
expression  "  he  says,  "  are  accommodated  to  our 
capacity  ",  and  we  are  not  to  obscure  the  real 
love  of  God  for  rebellious  sinners,  in  whom  "  he 


1  u 


Institutes",  II.  xvi.  2,  3. 


224        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

yet  discovers  something  that  his  goodness  may 
love.  ...  By  a  pure  and  gratuitous  love 
towards  us  he  is  excited  to  receive  us  into  fa- 
vor. .  .  .  Therefore,  to  remove  all  occasion 
of  enmity  and  to  reconcile  us  completely  to  him- 
self, he  abolishes  all  our  guilt  by  the  expiation 
exhibited  in  the  death  of  Christ."^  And,  finally, 
the  ultimate  ethical  root  of  Calvin's  whole  doc- 
trine is  clear  from  the  reference  which  he  makes 
of  the  effectiveness  of  the  expiation  to  the  "  obe- 
dience "  of  Christ  by  which  "  in  its  whole 
course  "  he  rendered  God  favorable  to  us.  "  In- 
deed ",  says  Calvin,  "  his  voluntary  submission 
is  the  principal  circumstance  even  in  his  death  "  f 
which  excludes  forever  the  idea  "that  God  was 
ever  hostile  to  him,  or  angry  with  him  ".  ^ 

Thus  Calvin  is  clearly  upon  the  side  of  those 
who  have  seen  in  the  death  of  Christ  the  per- 
formance in  our  behalf  of  something  which  we 
could  not  do  for  ourselves.  But  his  exaltation 
of  the  law  of  God  and  of  the  idea  of  expiation, 
especially  as  sharpened  by  his  successors,  and 
connected  with  the  justice  of  God  as  an  eternal 
divine  attribute,  called  forth  from  Socinus  the 
statement  of  a  contradictory  doctrine  which  So- 
cinus condensed  in  the  form :  "  I  think  and  hold 
to  be  the  orthodox  doctrine  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
our  Saviour  because  he  has  announced  to  us  the 

*  Ibidem. 

'  Ibidem,  5 

*  Ibidem,  II. 


The  Work  of  Christ  1225 

way  of  eternal  salvation,  has  confirmed  it,  and 
in  his  own  person  both  by  his  example  and  by 
rising  from  the  dead  manifestly  exhibited  it,  and 
because  he  will  himself  give  to  us  who  believe 
in  him  eternal  life  ".^  The  "  confirmation "  is 
partly,  but  only  partly,  by  the  death  of  Christ, 
which  thus  receives  no  importance  or  adequate 
explanation  in  Socinianism.  In  this  doctrine,  as 
in  his  whole  system,  Socinus  proceeded  from  to- 
tally different  principles  from  those  adopted  by 
Calvin  and  the  generality  of  Protestants.  The 
sharp  discussion  which  ensued  had  the  ad- 
vantage, like  that  of  the  Nicsean  period,  of  con- 
sidering all  the  main  arguments  bearing  upon 
the  theme.  Socinus  denies  the  necessity  of  sat- 
isfaction to  forgiveness ;  affirms  its  impossibility, 
if  sins  are  to  be  forgiven;  denies  its  actuality; 
emphasizes  the  impossibility  of  a  transfer  of  pun- 
ishment, and  especially  that  of  our  punishment 
for  sin,  which  is  eternal  death;  denies  the  bear- 
ing of  the  dignity  of  Christ's  person  upon  the 
value  of  his  sufferings;  affirms  the  impossibility 
of  vicarious  obedience  to  the  law ;  and  denies  im- 
putation whether  of  obedience  or  of  guilt,  as  an 
impossibility.  The  true  view  of  the  subject 
springs  from  correct  conceptions  of  God's  jus- 
tice; and,  punitive  justice  being  an  "effect  of 

^"  De  Jesu  Christo  Servatore",  1.  I.  To  be  found  in 
the  Bibliotheca  Fratrum  Polonorum,  vol.  II.,  p.  115  ff. 
This  topic  is  more  fully  discussed  in  Grotius'  "  De- 
fence ",    English    translation,    Andover,    1889. 


226  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
God's  will ",  the  question  on  which  everything 
in  the  topic  turns  is,  What  is  fitting  for  God  to 
do?  And,  since  God  has  promised  to  forgive 
repentant  sinners,  this  is  fitting,  and  therefore 
just.  Thus,  as  he  thinks,  the  foundation  of  Cal- 
vin's whole  argument  has  been  undermined. 

This  theory  of  Socinus,  considered  as  a  sub- 
jective theory  of  the  atonement,  is  pecuHarly 
bare,  unspiritual,  and  unsatisfactory.  It  is  really 
as  formal  and  repellent  as  Socinus  can  have  con- 
ceived the  Calvinism  of  his  own  day  to  be.  There 
is  almost  or  quite  no  reference  to  the  effect  of 
the  death  of  Christ  upon  the  heart  of  the  unbe- 
liever leading  him  to  repentance.  The  death  is 
scarcely  more  than  the  necessary  condition  of  the 
resurrection,  which  "  confirms  "  and  "  exhibits  " 
salvation.  But  it  essentially  covers  the  points  of 
opposition  to  the  view  of  Christ's  death  as  pro- 
pitiation, which  have  been  repeated  with  more  or 
less  variation  ever  since.  This  controversy  per- 
formed the  service  of  bringing  out  one  more  dis- 
cussion of  the  theme  from  a  still  different  stand- 
point, when  Grotius  appeared  with  his  reply  to 
Socinus,  in  which  he  changed  the  presentation  of 
the  position  of  God  in  the  matter  of  forgive- 
ness from  that  found  in  both  Calvinists  and  So- 
cinians,  by  whom  he  was  conceived  as  "  the  of- 
fended party  ",  to  that  of  Sovereign  and  Ruler. 
Grotius  accordingly  emphasizes  the  idea  of  law 
rather  than  that  of  justice,  and  made  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ  a  legal  example  and  the  occasion 


The  Work  of  Christ  aiy 

of  the  relaxation  of  the  law,  and  not  the  exact 
and  strict  penalty  demanded  by  justice.  But  this 
view,  however  it  may  have  been  considered,  and 
have  served  to  assist  in  the  clarification  of  the 
thinking  of  the  times,  met  with  no  general  re- 
ception, and  left  little  trace  of  itself  among  those 
theologians  who  maintained  the  line  of  evangel- 
ical theological  descent. 

The  crystallization  of  the  theology  of  the  Ref- 
ormation upon  the  atonement  may  be  sufficiently 
traced  for  our  present  purpose  in  the  great  creeds 
which  began  with  its  beginning  at  Augsburg 
(1530)  and  reached  their  completion  at  the  close 
of  the  thirty  years'  war  (1648)  and  of  the  reign 
of  Charles  I.  in  the  Westminster  Confession.  It 
would  be  tedious  to  repeat  here  all  the  definitions 
of  these  creeds,  so  entirely  accordant  are  they 
with  the  general  result  at  which  Calvin  arrived. 
The  Augsburg  Confession  taught  that  Christ  suf- 
fered "  that  he  might  reconcile  the  Father  unto 
us  "  ;^  the  Belgic,  that  he  made  "  satisfaction  "  in 
our  nature,  and  bore  "  the  punishment  of  sin  by 
his  most  bitter  passion  and  death  ",  "  appeasing 
the  wrath  of  God  by  offering  himself  upon  the 
tree "  ;*  and  the  Westminster,  which  was  pre- 
pared in  the  full  light  of  all  the  previous  dis- 
cussions and  is  demonstrably  the  lineal  descend- 
ant, through  the  Lambeth  and  Irish  Articles,  of 

*  See  Schaff's  "  Creeds  of  Christendom  ",  vol.  III.,  p. 

*  Ibidem,  pp.  404,  405. 


228        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

the  original  English  Articles  prepared  in  the  year 
1563,  thus  summing  up  the  whole  course  of  Prot- 
estant theology  in  general,  and  of  English  the- 
ology in  particular, — the  Westminster  affirms 
that  "  the  Lord  Jesus,  by  his  perfect  obedience 
and  sacrifice  of  himself,  which  he  through  the 
eternal  Spirit  once  offered  up  unto  God,  hath 
fully  satisfied  the  justice  of  his  Father,  and  pur- 
chased not  only  reconciliation,  but  an  everlast- 
ing inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  for  all 
those  whom  the  Father  hath  given  him  ".^ 

This,  then,  seems  to  be  the  verdict  of  history, 
if  we  pause  in  our  review  at  Westminster,  as  to 
the  great  point  of  our  contention,  whether  Christ 
does  something  for  us  preparing  salvation,  con- 
stituting its  very  possibility,  which  we  could  not 
do  for  ourselves.  It  is  unmistakably  for  that 
contention.  We  need  add  but  one  further  re- 
mark ;  but  that  is  a  necessary  one,  for  we  ought 
certainly  to  seek  the  clearest  proof  that  the  de- 
velopment of  doctrine  which  has  here  been  hastily 
sketched  is  a  genuine  development  when  judged 
according  to  the  criteria  already  laid  down.  It 
is  genuine;  for  it  conforms  to  all  those  criteria. 
It  ( I )  begins  in  Scripture  teaching  by  our  Lord 
and  his  apostles;  it  (2)  has  proceeded  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  logical  sequence,  beginning 
like  all  the  doctrines  in  a  condition  of  substantial 
harmony  upon  the  facts,  without  scientific  for- 
mulation, coming  to  such  formulation  when  the 

*  Ibidem,  p.  621. 


The  Work  of  Christ  229 

times  demanded  it,  when  the  elements  of  Chris- 
tian theology  required  it  for  their  consistent  ex- 
pression, proceeding  by  full  discussion,  rejecting 
alien  elements,  and  attaining  general  accept- 
ance; it  (3)  agrees  with  other  established  Chris- 
tian doctrines,  especially  with  the  doctrine  of  in- 
carnation unto  redemption,  and  with  our  ethical 
necessities,  as  well  as  the  objective  character  of 
forgiveness ;  and  (4)  it,  and  it  alone,  accords  with 
objective  biblical  exegesis. 

I  have  restricted  myself  in  this  review  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  simple  thesis  which  I  have  de- 
fined for  two  reasons,  the  first,  that  there  is  still 
some  dispute  among  those  who  eagerly  maintain 
the  objective  atonement  as  to  the  proper  formula- 
tion of  the  theory  of  it,  and  the  second,  that  the 
most  recent  forms  of  attack  concern  this  main 
point  rather  than  anything  less  central  and  funda- 
mental. We  are  told  in  various  forms  that  Christ 
has  simply  done  before  us  what  we  have  to  do 
after  him;  that  sacrifice  is  essential  to  all  forms 
of  soul  saving;  and  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
differs  from  others  only  as  his  own  greatness  and 
the  greatness  of  his  task  as  Saviour  of  Humanity 
differentiate  him  from  them.  The  explanation, 
it  is  said,  must  be  ethical  and  spiritual.  There 
is  no  need  of  any  "  transactional  basis  "  for  for- 
giveness, or  of  anything  spectacular:  all  must 
be  spiritual  and  real ;  and  this  is  the  real  element, 
that  no  one,  not  even  Christ,  can  save  a  sinner 
without  entering  into  his  sin  and  bearing  its  con- 


230        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

sequent  pain  himself.  Now,  when  such  a  theory 
as  this  is  propounded,  it  may  be  said,  have  you 
not  a  new  outgrowth  of  Christian  experience  ?  Is 
there  not  here  a  spiritual  development?  And  is 
not  that  objective  feature  of  atonement  as  much 
a  transient,  and  hence  individual,  special,  ab- 
normal element  of  the  doctrine  as  is  the  ransom 
paid  to  the  Devil,  or  any  other  outlived  element, 
Anselm's  supererogatory  performance  of  Christ, 
for  example,  which  had  its  origin  in  the  customs 
and  doctrine  of  the  Roman  Catholic  confessional  ? 
Certainly,  Christian  experience  ought  to  grow 
more  spiritual  with  the  progress  of  time,  and  this 
explanation,  it  is  said,  as  more  spiritual,  has  in  it 
the  marks  of  a  Christian  development. 

Our  theme  prescribes  for  us  the  single  line  of 
reply  marked  out  by  the  form  into  which  these 
questions  have  fallen.  Do  the  theories  sketched 
bear  the  marks  of  a  genuine  product  of  the  uni- 
versal Christian  experience?  Our  answer  cannot 
long  hesitate.  They  ( i )  do  not  begin  in  a  recog- 
nizable germ  in  the  recorded  teachings  of  our 
Lord  and  his  apostles.  The  course  of  our  exe- 
getical  discussion  excludes  them  at  once.  But 
(2)  there  is  in  them  nothing  of  "  conservation 
of  the  past ",  nothing  of  a  recognition  of  the  di- 
vine leading  in  the  previous  Christian  history, 
nothing  of  a  deeper  and  fuller  interpretation  of 
acknowledged  facts  of  doctrine  which  are  not 
to  be  surrendered.  They  are  professedly  a  dis- 
carding of  the  "  unspiritual ",  and  actually  a  re- 


The  Work  of  Christ  23 1 

jection  of  the  established  and  Christian.  Unless 
we  are  to  say  that  Christianity  is  not  of  divine 
origin,  and  that  it  is  therefore  bound  to  no  be- 
ginning in  revelation  but  is  simply  like  a  bark 
floating  upon  the  tide  of  general  human  progress, 
we  cannot  acknowledge  this  proposal  as  a  legiti- 
mate outgrowth  of  experience.  It  departs  too 
widely  from  the  original,  constitutive,  and  stand- 
ard experience  of  the  apostolic  age. 

But  we  may  now  say  more.  Refined  Christian 
feeling  may  possibly  object  to  the  merely  external 
and  to  the  "  spectacular  "  and  "  transactional  ", 
as  it  objects  to  merely  external  religious  author- 
ity; and  we  are  ready  to  grant  any  such  conten- 
tion which  can  be  made.  True,  there  might  be 
so  great  a  spiritualization  as  to  pass  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  reasonable,  and  to  deny  substan- 
tially that  we  are  still  spirits  clothed  in  flesh  and 
subject  to  material  conditions.  Christ  did  actu- 
ally die  and  shed  his  literal  blood.  But  such  a 
spiritualization  as  this  is  surely  not  intended  or  in 
any  degree  a  probable  outcome  of  present  dis- 
cussions. So  far  as  it  has  this  real  and  substan- 
tial ground  of  objection,  that  the  merely  spec- 
tacular is  inconceivable  in  a  realm  of  so  serious 
realities  as  those  which  pertain  to  salvation,  it  is 
to  be  answered  by  the  direct  reply  that  the  atone- 
ment does  not  involve  the  merely  spectacular. 
There  is  a  spectacle  "  to  angels  and  to  men  "  in 
the  death  of  Christ ;  but  it  is  a  spectacle  involving 
the  deepest  spiritual  realities.     It  may  carry  ob- 


232        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

jectively  still  more ;  but  it  carries  to  experience  by 
the  direct  path  of  the  spiritual  intuitions  a  vast 
burden  of  important  truth.  God  need  not  be  con- 
ceived of  as  commanding  Christ  to  put  himself 
upon  the  cross  as  a  priest  lays  a  victim  on  an 
altar,  if  this  shocks  the  sensibilities  of  any  (al- 
though it  is  the  biblical  representation,  and  did 
not  shock  the  apostles),  but  the  crucifixion  may 
be  viewed  as  wholly  the  act  of  wicked  men.  And 
yet,  if  God  has  so  made  the  world  that  the  purest 
of  all  human  beings,  even  the  Son  of  God,  could 
not  be  permitted  to  live  here  and  depart  hence 
without  incurring  hate  and  submitting  to  death, 
and  that  in  its  most  cruel  form,  bearing  upon 
guiltless  shoulders  the  ignominy  fit  only  for  the 
most  guilty,  then  the  whole  cosmic  system  bears 
inextricably  involved  in  it  the  divine  connection 
between  sin  and  pain.  The  whole  system  then 
manifests  God's  eternal  law  and  the  majesty  of 
his  unchangeable  determination  to  maintain  the 
right;  and  this  greatest  and  antecedently  incon- 
ceivable involution  of  suffering  declares  it  most 
of  all,  yes,  unspeakably,  infinitely.  Hence  as  an 
objective  fact,  no  sinner  can  doubt  God's  holi- 
ness or  despise  his  law,  as  historically  none  ever 
has,  when  he  looks  upon  Calvary.  All  this  is 
the  utterance  of  our  moral  intuitions  and  con- 
stitutes in  itself  an  objective  atonement,  with- 
out the  addition  of  further  elements.  But  if  there 
is  and  must  be  an  objective  element  in  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ,  why  should  it  not  be  made  promi- 


The  Work  of  Christ  i^S 

nent,  and  why  should  not  the  spiritual  here  be 
clothed  in  tangible  form  as  it  is  elsewhere?  If 
government  is  of  value,  and  if  the  divine  govern- 
ment is  a  spiritual  fact,  why  should  not  that  gov- 
ernment provide  for  the  escape  of  the  guilty  by 
the  imposition  of  their  penalty  on  other,  not  un- 
willing, shoulders  ?  The  "  spectacle  "  thereby 
created  is  no  mere  spectacle  but  one  founded  in 
the  nature  of  God  and  man;  of  God,  because  he 
will  not  forget  law  and  holiness  and  forgive  with- 
out reference  to  his  "  righteousness  " ;  of  man, 
because  he  needs  evidence  of  God's  holiness  in  the 
expression  of  Calvary  as  much  as  he  needs  evi- 
dence of  God's  omnipotence  in  the  forms  of  the 
world,  or  of  his  omniscience  in  the  evolution  of 
the  world's  inhabitants,  or  of  his  love  in  the 
teachings  of  Jesus.  In  no  sphere  do  we  learn 
about  God  except  as  he  has  revealed  himself,  or 
lifted  the  curtain  upon  the  spectacle  wrought  by 
his  activity.  And  if  there  is  a  divine  law,  ob- 
jectively declared  in  the  objective  Bible,  and 
accompanied  by  the  threat  of  an  objective  pen- 
alty, death,  why  does  not  the  divine  veracity  and 
the  best  good  of  men  (for  which  the  law  was 
given)  demand  an  objective  exaction  of  that 
penalty  ? 

We  have  repeatedly  referred  to  Kaftan  in  pre- 
ceding hours,  generally  by  way  of  criticism.  It  is 
a  pleasure  to  make  our  last  reference  to  him  in 
quite  another  way;  for  Kaftan  comes  vigorously 
to  the  defence  of  the  principle  for  which  I  have 


234        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

been  contending  in  the  foregoing  paragraphs. 
His  treatment  will  add  confirmation  from  another 
point  of  view  to  the  analysis  of  history  and  the 
dogmatic  construction  which  have  engaged  us. 
After  a  review  of  the  history  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  atonement  in  which  he  has  summarized  its 
verdict  as  this,  that  there  is  call  for  a  more  emi- 
nently ethical  discussion  of  the  doctrine,  he  says^ 
that  the  modern  theologians  have  perceived  this, 
"  and  they  have  returned  in  a  decided  majority 
to  the  old  doctrine,  generally  laying  aside  the 
juridical  form  of  the  same,  and  seeking  to  give 
an  ethical  character  to  its  leading  thoughts,  and 
thus  deepen  it.  .  .  .  Not  the  juridical  idea 
of  punishment,  they  say,  but  the  ethical  idea  of 
propitiation  (Suhne)  is  to  be  made  the  basis.  On 
the  contrary,  the  highest  ethical  idea  of  pro- 
pitiation is  just  that  of  punishment.  Take  this 
away,  and  propitiation  becomes  nothing  but  the 
[inferior  and  unworthy]  idea  of  an  appeasing  of 
the  wrath  of  an  incensed  deity.  Precisely  the  idea 
of  the  vicarious  suffering  of  punishment  is  the 
idea  which  must  in  some  way  be  brought  to  a  full 
expression  for  the  sake  of  the  ethical  conscious- 
ness. Only  it  must  not  remain  the  leading 
thought.  Above  it  must  be  placed  the  thought 
that  justification  and  reconciliation  are  a  divine 
act  directed  towards  the  believer,  which  is  taken 
up  and  constituted  an  ethically  conditioned  ex- 
perience of  the  believer  by  the  faith  that  lays 
'  "  Dogmatik  ",  p.  491  ff . 


The  Work  of  Christ  235 

hold  of  the  death  of  Christ  as  the  act  of  revelation 
by  which  God  establishes  the  new  covenant. 
.  .  .  What  is  given  us  in  Christ,  specially  in 
his  death  and  resurrection,  forms  not  simply  the 
objective  presupposition  of  salvation,  but  it  is  it- 
self the  divine  saving  act  of  regeneration  and 
justification,  which  becomes  effective  in  every 
case  in  which  the  word  of  Christ  awakens  faith." 
So  much  for  Kaftan's  criticism  of  current  ways 
of  restating  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement.  He 
approaches  his  own  treatment  of  the  subject 
through  the  topic  of  justification.  This  is  a 
"  forensic  act ",  a  declaration  as  to  the  sinner, — 
simply  and  best  stated,  his  forgiveness.  But  it  is 
**  the  death  of  the  Saviour  which  first  gives 
unambiguous  expression  to  the  purpose  of  his 
mission.  .  .  .  The  paternal  forgiveness  of 
God  is  to  be  sharply  distinguished  from  a  mere 
overlooking  which  lets  sin  go.  On  the  contrary, 
it  permits  no  doubt  to  arise  that  sin  is  sin,  it  con- 
vinces the  sinner  of  the  whole  weight  and  depth 
of  his  guilt,  and  yet  receives  him  with  gentle 
mercy  into  the  peace  of  his  Father's  house  and 
re-establishes  the  interrupted  communion.  It 
judges  sin  while  it  forgives  the  sinner.  Thus  gen- 
uine forgiveness  is  a  high,  if  not  the  highest, 
revelation  of  moral  dignity  (Wiirde).  It  unites 
the  judge's  punishing  severity  with  the  love 
which  seeks  the  good  of  the  other.  Therefore  it 
only  takes  place  when  an  unmistakable  expres- 
sion is  given  to  the  moral  dignity  of  the  for- 


2^6  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
giving  God/*  Not  merely  is  this  so,  but  "the 
conscience,  awakened  by  God,  can  accept  no  for- 
giveness which  is  not  experienced  as  at  the  same 
time  a  condemnation  of  sin.  Otherwise  it  would 
feel  doubt  of  the  divine  origin  of  the  forgive- 
ness, and  so  of  its  worth.  .  .  .  Sin  and  law 
are  correlate  conceptions,  that  is,  the  moral  con- 
sciousness of  the  sinner  is  necessarily  controlled 
by  the  idea  of  law.  .  .  The  law  and  its  curse 
were  in  fact  truth,  and  would  have  had  the  last 
word,  if  it  had  not  pleased  God  to  have  mercy 
on  men  through  Jesus  Christ.  That  is,  without 
this  the  result  for  men  would  have  been  the  de- 
served penalty  of  condemnation.  But  God  has 
had  mercy  upon  man  and  sent  his  Son.  And 
Jesus,  though  he  was  without  sin  and  deserved 
no  punishment,  took  upon  himself  all  the  evils 
which  have  come  into  the  world  as  the  conse- 
quence and  punishment  of  sin,  even  to  the  shame- 
ful death  on  the  cross  by  the  hand  of  sinners. 
He  did  this  because  he  could  in  no  other  way 
fulfil  his  calling  and  carry  into  effect  the  coun- 
sels of  the  divine  mercy.  Consequently,  for  the 
good  of  man,  he  bore  all  that  which  man  had  de- 
served, and  thereby  has  man  escaped  the  final, 
eternal  punishment  and  become  a  child  of  God. 
All  this  is  comprised  by  the  church  in  that  sin- 
gle expression  taken  from  the  words  of  the 
ancient  prophet,  *  The  chastisement  of  our  peace 
was  upon  him,  and  with  his  stripes  we  are 
healed  '."    And  he  adds :  "  That  is  not  merely  a 


The  Work  of  Christ  237 

subjective  conclusion  upon  the  related  facts,  but 
it  is  as  objective  and  real  as  anything  which  faith 
recognizes  and  knows." 

Thus  we  pause  in  our  theme.  The  objective 
work  of  Christ  in  the  blood  of  the  cross  as  the 
foundation  of  the  subjective  work  of  salvation, 
this  is  the  result  of  experience  confirmed  by 
Scripture  and  Christian  history.  We  have  been 
in  the  atmosphere  of  discussion,  as  about  the  lit- 
eral cross  on  which  Jesus  died  there  were  gath- 
ered the  Roman  soldiers,  whose  clanging  armor 
and  brutal  ignorance  and  indifference  and  greed 
for  spoil,  disturbed  the  soul  and  added  confusion 
to  grief.  But  in  the  greatness  and  solemnity  of 
the  spectacle  a  solemn  stillness  finally  settled 
upon  the  scene,  till  the  Centurion  himself  ex- 
claimed :  "  Truly,  this  was  the  Son  of  God " ; 
and  as  we  linger  there  in  thought,  and  now  as  we 
go  away,  we  may  take  upon  our  lips  the  words  of 
Montgomery  and  sing: 

When  to  the  cross  I  turn  mine  eyes, 

And  rest  on  Calvary, 
O  Lamb  of  God,  my  sacrifice, 

I  must  remember  Thee. 

Remember  Thee  and  all  thy  pains. 

And  all  thy  love  to  me; 
Yea,  while  a  breath,  a  pulse  remains, 

Will  I  remember  Thee. 

And  when  these  failing  lips  grow  dim. 

And  mind  and  memory  flee, 
When  Thou  shall  in  thy  kingdom  come, 

Jesus,  remember  me. 


LECTURE  VI 

THE    CHURCH 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  last  lecture  of  this 
brief  course.  The  limits  set  by  the  passage  of 
time  forbid  us  to  enter  upon  a  large  number  of 
topics  upon  which  something  of  interest,  and 
perhaps  of  importance,  might  be  said.  But  we 
may  console  ourselves  with  the  reflection  that 
the  great  leading  and  determinative  doctrines  of 
the  evangelical  system  have  been  reviewed,  and 
•that  as  a  system — a  whole  of  self-consistent 
thought — the  voice  of  experience  has  been  found 
to  speak  for  it.  Besides,  the  utterances  of  Chris- 
tian experience  are  not  so  rich  in  the  remaining 
portions  of  the  system  as  in  those  which  have  been 
reviewed.  In  respect  to  the  theory  of  the  atone- 
ment, for  example,  a  topic  which  we  have  dis- 
cussed only  in  its  most  general  form,  in  the  mere 
aspect  of  a  work  objectively  done  by  Christ  as 
the  foundation  of  the  sinner's  salvation, — ex- 
perience would  have  much  less  to  say.  True,  the 
evidence  of  Christian  history  has  a  bearing, 
and  the  products  of  the  general  reflection  of  the 
whole  church  can  be  gathered  up;  but  evidently, 
distinctions  which  divide  theologies,  as  do  those 
238 


The  Church  239 

between  "  distributive  "  justice  and  "  general  " 
justice,  do  not  enter  into  consciousness  strictly 
so  styled.  Advocates  of  the  various  forms  of  the 
so-called  moral  theory  may  indeed  rightly  cite 
experience  for  the  fact  that  the  cross  of  Christ 
is  the  place  of  the  most  powerful  exhibition  of  the 
infinite  love  of  God — the  most  moving  of  all  the 
influences  that  tend  to  bring  men  into  harmony 
with  him  by  breaking  down  the  opposition  of 
their  hard  hearts.  The  atonement  has  this  effect, 
which  is  undoubtedly  a  designed  effect;  but  that 
this  is  its  sole  effect,  or  even  its  chief  effect,  ex- 
perience could  never  declare.  At  its  utmost  it 
could  only  say  that  it  knew  of  no  other ;  and  this 
is  just  what  it  does  not  say.  As  to  the  divine 
agency  in  regeneration  experience  is  equally 
silent.  Consciousness  embraces  the  motives  that 
operate  upon  the  will,  and  follows  the  path  of  in- 
ference traced  in  another  lecture  to  the  conclusion 
that  their  source  is  the  personal  action  of  God. 
But  here  consciousness  stops.  How  those  mo- 
tives are  presented,  and  whether  any  such 
"  change  in  the  very  substance  of  the  soul "  oc- 
curs as  theologians  have  taught,  it  cannot  say. 
So,  again,  the  objective  divine  act  of  justification, 
apart  from  the  subjective  experience  of  forgive- 
ness, does  not  enter  consciousness.  The  doctrine 
of  future  awards  of  eternal  blessedness  and  pun- 
ishment has,  no  doubt,  a  basis  in  immediate  ex- 
perience, for  guilt  and  self-condemnation  are 
parts  of  such  experience ;  but  the  nature  of  those 


240        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

awards,  and  even  their  eternity,  however  rea- 
sonable, capable  of  adjustment  to  the  remaining 
portions  of  the  system,  and  sustained  by  the 
larger  experience  of  the  church  as  embodied  in 
standard  treatises  and  creeds,  can  never  derive 
illustration  or  confirmation  from  the  immediate 
experience  of  Christians  who  are  all  still  actually 
confined  by  the  limitations  of  space  and  time. 
We  pass  these  topics  by,  then,  with  the  less  re- 
luctance. There  remains  one  great  department  of 
the  system,  where  experience  has  much  to  say, 
still  untouched  by  all  our  discussion,  but  of  the 
most  vital  importance,  the  topic  of  sanctification. 
It  is  a  topic  of  frequent  debate  in  our  own  time, 
into  many  interesting  forms  of  which  it  would 
be  both  pleasurable  and  profitable  to  enter.  If 
something  could  be  done  in  the  way  of  dissecting 
the  supposed  experiences  of  perfect  sanctifica- 
tion believed  by  many  pious  and  earnest,  but  mis- 
guided souls  to  be  granted  unto  them,  and  of  ex- 
hibiting plainly  the  delusion  involved  therein,  a 
real  service  to  religion  would  be  rendered.  Per- 
haps this  may  be  attempted  at  another  time  and 
place.  At  present  the  discussion  must  be  limited 
to  one  topic,  also  of  the  greatest  current  interest, 
which  embraces  in  its  implications  the  most  im- 
portant elements  of  the  subject  of  sanctification, 
viz.,  the  Church.  The  Anglo-saxon  peoples,  with 
their  pre-eminently  practical  characteristics,  have 
always  laid  great  emphasis  upon  questions  of  pol- 
ity.   But  to-day  the  exigencies  of  life  in  our  own 


The  Church  1241 

country  have  attracted  fresh  attention  to  the 
theme,  and  nothing  can  be  said  to  be  of  greater 
Hving  interest  than  questions  as  to  the  unity  of 
the  church,  its  basis,  and  its  methods.  The  most 
notable  overture  made  by  any  of  the  great  his- 
toric churches  on  this  theme  is  that  made  by 
the  Protestant  Episcopal.  It  contains,  as  one  of 
the  essentials  to  effective  Christian  unity,  the 
acceptance  of  the  "  historic  episcopate  ",  and  this 
in  the  sense,  as  has  finally  been  made  clear,  that 
the  episcopate  regularly  derived  from  the  Apos- 
tles, is  essential  to  the  being  of  the  church.  The 
first  question,  then,  to  be  settled  before  Chris- 
tian unity  is  attained  or  attainable,  is  the  ques- 
tion. What  is  the  church?  And  upon  that  ques- 
tion Christian  experience  has  a  word  to  say. 

Sanctification  has  a  divine  and  a  human  side. 
As  a  mere  human  experience  it  is  a  matter  of 
immediate  consciousness  because  it  is  a  matter  of 
choice,  sanctification  being  the  exercise  of  holy 
choice  and  progressive  sanctification  being  the 
intensification  of  such  choice  and  the  multiplica- 
tion of  individual  choices  of  the  right  till  they 
become,  in  the  final  consummation,  uninterrupted. 
Thus  all  through  the  process  the  Christian  is 
conscious  of  what  is  going  on  within  him,  or  he 
may  be.  I  say  "  may  be  ",  for  it  is  a  fact  that 
the  best  Christian  growth,  that  is,  the  best  ex- 
perience of  sanctification,  is  often  practically  un- 
conscious, because  it  is  attained  by  the  active  do- 
ing of  duty,  by  which  the  Christian  is  absorbed 


242        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

not  in  himself  as  doing  it,  but  in  the  duty  to 
which  he  has  given  himself.  Too  great  intro- 
spection is  fatal  to  the  best  living.  Thus  there 
may  come  great  stretches  of  the  Christian's  life 
when,  in  fact,  his  power  of  resistance  to  evil  is 
constantly  developing  and  his  capacity  and  love 
of  service  are  constantly  enlarging;  but  he  may 
not  know  it,  just  as  one  is  often  so  happy  that 
he  does  not  know  he  is  happy  at  all.  But  if  the 
issue  is  raised  by  any  fact  or  event,  if  the  Chris- 
tian asks  himself  whether  he  is  maintaining  a 
holy  choice,  then,  of  course,  the  answer  must  be 
immediate  and  certain.  In  a  mind  capable  of  any 
considerable  self-examination,  to  experience 
sanctification  and  to  know  it  are  inseparable 
facts. 

It  were  easy  to  prove  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
the  agent  of  sanctification.  The  argument  is 
the  same  as  that  already  traced  for  the  existence 
of  God  from  the  experience  of  the  new  birth.  In 
fact,  it  is  in  the  performance  of  the  sanctifying 
work  that  God  makes  himself  known.  But  we 
are  not  now  obliged  to  retrace  this  proof  or  to  in- 
sist upon  it.  It  is  a  plain  doctrine  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, whose  authority  has  been  already  estab- 
lished by  our  argument,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
the  agent  of  sanctification,  and  we  may  accept 
it  without  further  inquiry.  We  draw,  however, 
this  important  inference,  that,  since  holy  choice 
is  itself  a  matter  of  immediate  certainty  and  is 
elicited  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  any  man  or  any  group 


The  Church  243 

of  men  may  certainly  know,  by  the  same  direct 
and  indubitable  inference  as  in  the  case  of  re- 
generation, that  they  are  the  recipients  of  God's 
sanctifying  grace,  if  this  is  so.  The  experience 
of  sanctification  is  a  proof  of  the  presence  of  the 
Spirit. 

Now,  out  of  the  experience  of  sanctification 
comes  the  existence  of  the  Christian  church ;  and, 
therefore,  wherever  there  is  sanctification,  there 
is  the  church  in  essence,  if  not  in  reality.  Noth- 
ing but  the  fact  of  sanctification  is  requisite  to 
prove  the  full  Christian  character  of  any  church 
in  which  it  is  found.  This  is  our  contention ;  and 
it  is  so  important  that  the  most  careful  justifica- 
tion of  it  is  imperatively  demanded. 

It  is  significant  that  the  first  time  the  church 
of  Christ  is  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament 
(Matt.  xvi.  18:  "Thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this 
rock  will  I  build  my  church  "),  it  is  spoken  of  as 
something  well  understood.  We  are  therefore 
either  to  suppose  that  Christ  had  previously  es- 
tablished it  in  some  discourse  not  handed  down  to 
us,  or,  as  is  more  probable,  that  it  was  thought 
too  obvious  to  need  explanation  that  his  follow- 
ers, like  Israel  at  large,  or  the  smaller  Jewish 
communities  who  gathered  in  their  synagogues, 
would  have  their  "  congregation  "  (Heb.  '''^Pt  ). 
It  was  in  the  nature  of  the  case  certain.  The 
Jews  gathered  in  synagogues  because  they  were 
interested  in  the  same  great  truths  and  duties, 
and  needed  confirmation  in  the  way  of  holiness. 


244        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

They  gathered  because  souls  interested  in  the  same 
things  always  gather  together.  Even  more  pow- 
erful was  the  tendency  among  Christians  because 
Christianity  is  a  religion  of  love,  and  men  who 
love  holiness  must  love  all  who  share  this  love. 
Love  of  neighbor  flows  directly  out  of  love  of 
God  and  no  man  can  have  the  latter  who  does 
not  also  have  the  former.  Hence  Christianity  is 
a  religion  of  association ;  or,  in  modern  parlance, 
a  social  religion.  To  be  a  Christian  and  not  care 
for  other  Christians  is  impossible  because  such 
indifference  is  the  denial  of  the  very  constitutive 
element  of  Christianity,  love ;  it  is  the  destruction 
of  holy  choice,  the  death  of  sanctification.  Sanc- 
tification  therefore  leads  necessarily  to  the 
church. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  church  is  the  sphere 
within  which  sanctification  is  carried  on  by  the 
divine  Spirit.  Jesus  did  not  contemplate  any 
other  sanctification.  It  was  by  the  church,  the 
group  of  apostles  that  had  been  companying  to- 
gether in  Jerusalem,  that  the  word  was  preached 
at  Pentecost  which  resulted  in  the  conversion  of 
the  first  great  multitude  brought  to  Christ  after 
his  ascension,  and  they  were  all  baptized  and 
"  added  "  to  the  church.  There  is  no  record  of 
conversions  in  the  New  Testament  but  in  the 
same  way  and  with  the  same  result.  And  when 
gifts  of  the  Spirit  are  spoken  of  and  the  evidences 
of  sanctification  in  works  of  beneficence  are  re- 


The  Church  1245 

counted,  it  is  always  within  the  same  circle  of  the 
witnessing  church. 

The  whole  New  Testament  view  upon  this  sub- 
ject is,  then,  this,  that,  given  holy  processes,  that 
is,  sanctification,  in  human  souls,  these  will  at 
once  naturally  unite  in  Christian  society,  and  that 
such  a  society  is  a  church ;  and  again,  that,  given 
a  church,  the  Holy  Spirit  will  work  through  it 
producing  sanctification,  so  that  sanctification  is 
the  proof  of  his  presence  and  the  proof  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  church.  We  cannot  better  phrase 
our  doctrine  than  in  the  words  of  Irenaeus, — 
though  we  need  not  defend  his  entire  consist- 
ency,— "  Where  the  church  is,  there  is  the  Spirit 
of  God ;  and  where  the  Spirit  of  God  is,  there  is 
the  church."  To  this  authority  "  Catholics  "  of 
every  name  cannot  object.  We  therefore  say 
with  large  degree  of  confidence  that  the  true  doc- 
trine of  the  church  must  be  formulated  in  ac- 
cordance with  this  canon. 

So  entirely  foreign  to  the  earliest  period  of  the 
church  was  the  developed  ecclesiasticism  of  Rome 
that  when  the  "  teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
tles "  was  written,  in  the  year  100  A.  D.,  or 
thereabouts,  there  were  many  churches  existing 
without  bishops  or  deacons,  gathered  apparently 
by  travelling  evangelists  and  never  provided  with 
officers, — often,  no  doubt,  gathering  themselves 
by  the  natural  attraction  of  Christian  faith.  They 
were  "  churches  ",  for  they  had  the  Spirit ;  but 


246        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

they  were  not  organized  as  they  needed  to  be. 
That  had  to  come  later.  But  by  the  year  1517, 
when  the  Reformation  was  introduced  by  Luther, 
all  this  early  simplicity  had  long  since  passed 
away.  The  church,  as  men  then  viewed  it,  com- 
prised the  following  essential  particulars.  It  was 
the  ark  of  salvation,  outside  of  which  salvation 
is  impossible;  the  possessor  of  the  sacraments, 
which  can  only  be  administered  by  it,  and  which 
are  the  indispensable  channels  of  grace;  essen- 
tially composed  of  the  clergy;  its  existence  se- 
cured by  the  hierarchy  instituted  by  the  Apostles, 
which  culminates  in  the  Pope.  Everything  de- 
pends upon  connection  with  the  papacy,  both  the 
right  organization  and  validity  of  the  church  and 
the  salvation  of  the  individual. 

Here  is  the  most  radical  change  that  can  be 
conceived.  The  idea  of  the  church  has  been  in- 
verted. What  was  once  primarily  the  fellowship 
of  believers,  and  only  secondarily  the  institution 
established  to  bestow  salvation  upon  men,  has 
now  become  primarily  the  repository  of  all  the 
gifts  of  grace,  and  is  in  no  essential  sense  at  all 
the  fellowship  of  believers.  Men  are  always  in 
the  process  of  salvation,  never  saved,  to  the  Ro- 
man church.  And  the  proof  of  the  Spirit's  pres- 
ence is  no  longer  sanctification,  but  the  "  miracle 
of  the  altar  ",  which  itself  needs  other  miracles 
to  confirm  it. 

Now  at  this  point  the  polemics  of  both  com- 
munions will  lock  horns  and  fight  the  fight  out 


The  Church 


247 


to  the  death.  But  meantime  the  student  of  Chris- 
tian experience  may  find  a  better  way  of  ascer- 
taining the  truth.  He  may  first  point  out  the 
evident  fact  that  historically  this  radical  change, 
slowly  proceeding  through  the  centuries,  bears 
the  most  certain  tokens  of  being  a  "  degenera- 
tion "  rather  than  an  example  of  true  develop- 
ment. The  hierarchy  was  not  an  institution  of 
the  apostolic  age,  but  archbishops,  patriarchs,  and 
the  papal  claims  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  all  arise 
at  definite  periods  and  mostly  at  distinctly  as- 
signable dates.  And  no  trace  of  the  underlying 
idea  of  the  hierarchy,  that  of  the  necessity  of  a 
priesthood  and  of  the  existence  in  the  church  of 
a  true  sacrifice,  the  mass,  can  be  found  in  the 
New  Testament  or  in  the  earHest  antiquity.  So 
much  for  external  matters.  But  that  great  in- 
ternal matter,  the  reversal  of  the  point  of  empha- 
sis in  the  church  from  a  fellowship  of  saved 
men  to  a  contrivance  to  save  them,  that  may  also 
be  shown  to  be  a  "  degeneration  ", — a  change  by 
the  most  gradual  steps,  but  by  an  increasing  de- 
parture from  most  of  the  ideas  of  the  church 
associated  with  the  great  primitive  thought, — 
that  men  gained  salvation  directly  from  God  who 
wrought  when  and  where  he  would  (Jn.  iii.  8). 

The  school  of  Ritschl,  which  we  have  so  often 
had  occasion  to  criticize  severely,  has  rendered  at 
this  point  a  great  service  to  the  church.  In  his 
"  History  of  Dogma  ",  Harnack  has  drawn  out 
the  steps  of  the  earliest  departures  from  original 


■«aT 


248        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

conceptions  of  the  church  in  a  masterly  manner. 
As  he  will  not  be  suspected  of  any  special  sym- 
pathy with  the  fundamental  ideas  of  the  present 
lectures,  his  testimony  is  the  more  noteworthy. 
I  make  free  quotations  from  his  pages  in  the 
following  paragraphs. 

"  The  confessors  of  the  gospel  [in  the  earliest 
period]  belonged  to  organized  communities 
which  stood  to  each  other  in  an  outwardly  loose 
but  inwardly  firm  connection,  and  every  com- 
munity, by  the  vigor  of  its  faith,  the  certainty  of 
its  hope,  the  holy  character  of  its  life,  as  well  as 
by  unfeigned  love,  unity,  and  peace,  was  to  be 
an  image  of  the  holy  church  which  is  in  heaven 
and  whose  members  are  scattered  over  the  earth. 
They  were  further,  by  the  purity  of  their  walk, 
and  an  active  brotherly  disposition,  to  prove  to 
those  without,  that  is,  to  the  world,  the  excellence 
and  the  truth  of  the  Christian  faith.  .  .  . 
The  church,  that  is,  the  totality  of  all  believers 
destined  to  be  received  into  the  kingdom  of  God, 
is  the  holy  church  because  it  is  brought  together 
and  preserved  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  the  one 
church  not  because  it  presents  this  unity  out- 
wardly,— on  earth  the  members  are,  rather,  scat- 
tered abroad, — but  because  it  will  be  brought  to 
unity  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  because  it  is 
ruled  by  the  same  spirit  and  inwardly  united  in  a 
common  relation  to  a  common  hope  and  ideal. 
The  church,  considered  in  its  origin,  is  the  num- 
ber of  those  chosen  by  God,  the  true  Israel, — 


The  Church  249 

nay,  still  more,  the  final  purpose  of  God,  for  the 
world  was  created  for  its  sake.^  .  .  .  The 
essential  character  of  Christendom  in  its  first 
period  was  a  new  holy  life  and  a  sure  hope,  both 
based  upon  repentance  towards  God  and  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  and  brought  about  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Christ  and  the  church,  that  is,  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  the  holy  church,  were  inseparably  con- 
nected. The  church,  or  in  other  words,  the  com- 
munity of  all  believers,  attains  her  unity  through 
the  Holy  Spirit.  This  unity  manifested  itself  in 
brotherly  love  and  in  the  common  relation  to  a 
common  ideal  and  a  common  hope.  The  assem- 
bly of  all  Christians  is  realized  in  the  kingdom 
of  God,  viz.,  in  heaven;  on  earth  Christians  and 
the  church  are  dispersed  and  in  a  foreign  land. 
Hence,  properly  speaking,  the  church  herself  is  a 
heavenly  community,  inseparable  from  the  heav- 
enly Christ.  Christians  believe  that  they  belong 
to  a  real  super-terrestrial  commonwealth,  which 
from  its  very  nature  cannot  be  realized  upon 
earth.  The  heavenly  goal  is  not  yet  separated 
from  the  idea  of  the  church;  there  is  a  holy 
church  on  earth  in  so  far  as  heaven  is  her  destina- 
tion. Every  individual  congregation  is  to  be  an 
image  of  the  heavenly  church.  Reflections  were 
no  doubt  made  on  the  contrast  between  the  em- 
pirical community  and  the  heavenly  church  whose 
likeness  it  was  to  be;  but  these  did  not  affect 
the  theory  of  the  subject.  Only  the  saints  of  God 
^  Op.  cit.,  English  translation,  I.,  150-152. 


250        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

whose  salvation  is  certain  belong  to  her,  for  the 
essential  thing  was  not  to  be  called,  but  to  be,  a 
Christian.  There  was  as  yet  no  empirical  uni- 
versal church  possessing  an  outward  legal  title 
that  could,  so  to  speak,  be  detached  from  the 
personal  Christianity  of  the  individual  Chris- 
tian."* 

This,  according  to  Harnack,  was  the  original 
condition  of  the  church.  But  it  came  out  into  a 
world  of  strife  and  soon  received  the  most  threat- 
ening attacks  itself.  Its  method  of  answering 
them  was  the  necessary  outcome  of  its  position, 
but  it  brought  about  insensibly  a  change  whereby 
the  original  idea  of  the  church  was  revolution- 
ized. For  example,  the  contest  with  Gnosticism 
involved  an  appeal  to  the  New  Testament,  the 
canon  of  which  was  quite  generally  settled  by 
this  time;  but  here  the  church  was  at  a  serious 
disadvantage.  The  arguments  of  the  Gnostics 
were  quite  as  good  as  those  of  the  church  leaders, 
because  the  exegesis  of  the  church  was  settled 
upon  no  sound  foundations;  and  you  cannot 
combat  one  allegory  by  another,  since  both  may 
be  true  or  both  false.  Hence  the  church  writers 
had  to  appeal  to  tradition  as  preserved  in  the 
church,  and  thus  to  lay  an  emphasis  upon  the 
great  seats  of  tradition,  on  Alexandria,  Corinth, 
and  especially  Rome,  which  gave  a  new  cast  to 
the  theory  of  the  church.  The  merely  historical 
argument    proved    to   be    insufficient;   hence   a 

*  Ibid.,  11.72. 


The  Church  251 

change  in  the  dogmatic  idea.  This  new  *'  idea 
was  that  the  Elders,  i  e.,  the  Bishops,  had  re- 
ceived '  with  the  succession  of  the  episcopacy  a 
certain  gift  of  truth ',  that  is,  their  office  con- 
ferred on  them  the  apostoHc  heritage  of  truth  [a 
rudimentary  infalUbiHty]  which  was  therefore 
objectively  attached  to  the  dignity,  as  a  charism. 
This  notion  of  the  transmissibility  of  the  charism 
of  truth  became  associated  with  the  episcopal  of- 
fice after  it  had  become  a  monarchical  one,  ex- 
ercising authority  over  the  church  in  all  relations, 
and  after  the  bishops  had  proved  themselves  the 
strongest  supports  of  the  communities  against 
the  attacks  of  the  secular  power  and  of  heresy. 
In  Irenaeus  and  Tertullian,  however,  we  only 
find  the  first  traces  of  this  new  theory.  The  old 
notion  which  regarded  the  churches  as  possessing 
the  heritage  in  so  far  as  they  possess  the  Holy 
Spirit,  continued  to  exercise  a  powerful  influ- 
ence on  these  writers,  who  still  united  the  new 
dogmatic  view  with  an  historical  one,  at  least 
in  controversies  with  the  heretics.  .  .  . 
Cyprian  found  the  theory  already  in  existence, 
but  was  the  first  to  develop  it  and  to  eradicate 
every  remnant  of  the  historical  argument  in  its 
favor.  The  conception  of  the  church  was  thereby 
subjected  to  a  further  transformation  which  com- 
pleted the  radical  changes  that  had  been  grad- 
ually taking  place  from  last  half  of  the  second 
century.  ...  It  was  taught  that  Christ  re- 
ceived from  God  a  law  of  faith,  which  as  a  new 


2^2       Christian  Life  and  Theology 

lawgiver  he  imparted  to  the  apostles,  and  that 
they,  by  transmitting  the  truth  of  which  they 
were  depositaries,  founded  the  one  Catholic 
church.  The  latter,  being  guardian  of  the  apos- 
tolic heritage,  has  the  assurance  of  possessing  the 
Spirit;  whereas  all  other  communities  than  her- 
self, inasmuch  as  they  have  not  received  that  de- 
posit, necessarily  lack  the  Spirit  and  are  there- 
fore separated  from  Christ  and  salvation.  Hence 
one  must  be  a  member  of  this  church  in  order  to 
be  a  partaker  of  salvation,  because  in  her  alone 
one  can  find  the  creed  which  must  be  recognized 
as  a  condition  of  salvation.  Consequently  in  pro- 
portion as  the  creed  became  a  doctrine  of  faith, 
the  Catholic  church  interposed  herself  as  an  em- 
piric power  between  the  individual  and  salva- 
tion. She  became  a  condition  of  salvation;  but 
the  result  was  that  she  ceased  to  be  a  sure  com- 
munion of  the  saved  and  of  saints."^ 

We  need  not  pursue  the  historical  discussion 
further.  While  on  the  one  hand  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  say  that  the  developing  tendency  towards 
the  strong  external  monarchy  of  the  papal  church 
was  in  every  respect  unfortunate  and  evil,  yet 
nothing  can  be  more  certain  or  more  capable  of 
objective  historical  proof  than  the  position  that 
the  process  was  at  bottom  a  corruption  of  the  idea 
of  the  church  or  that  the  demand  of  the  papacy 
that  "  every  creature  should  be  subject  to  the 
Roman  Pontiff  as  a  condition  of  salvation  "  was 

^Ibid.,  II.  89ff  . 


The  Church  253 

absolutely  without  foundation  in  the  will  of  God. 
It  was  right  to  seek  to  establish  the  church  more 
firmly  by  organization;  right  also  to  maintain 
that  the  gifts  of  God  to  men  are  ordinarily 
through  the  church;  but  wrong  to  say  that  the 
Spirit  was  bound  to  institutions  which  are  often 
themselves  of  doubtful  Christian  character,  the 
sacraments  as  administered,  the  papacy  as  estab- 
lished; and  a  hundredfold  wrong,  aye,  some- 
thing akin  to  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Spirit, 
to  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  work  of  the  Spirit 
seen  in  the  holy  lives  of  some  of  those  who  were 
"  schismatics  "  in  the  Roman  sense,  but  in  no 
sense  unbelievers  or  separated  from  the  true  body 
of  Christ! 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  much  serious  question 
whether  the  confirmation  of  Christian  experience 
can  be  obtained  for  this  Roman  development. 
Doubtless  Catholics  have  often  associated  their 
highest  religious  experiences  with  the  peculiar 
dogmas  and  observances  of  their  church.  Thus 
Cardinal  Newman  has  an  eloquent  passage  upon 
the  adoration  of  the  host  in  the  course  of  daily 
mass.  But  in  such  utterances  the  polemic  and 
the  apologist  come  too  evidently  to  the  front.  If 
those  great  books  of  Catholic  piety  which  have 
been  acceptable  to  Christians  of  every  age  and 
which  may  therefore  be  said  to  reflect  the  uni- 
versal Christian  experience  be  carefully  exam- 
ined, it  will  be  found,  I  think,  that  they  are  to- 
tally independent  of  the  Romanizing  dogmatic 


a  54  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
views  which  as  a  fact  their  authors  beHeved. 
Take,  for  example,  Augustine,  a  great  father  of 
the  universal  church,  as  an  ecclesiastic  the  fore- 
runner of  Catholicism,  and  as  a  theologian  of 
Protestantism;  you  will  not  find  him  speaking  in 
a  Roman  sense  in  his  greatest  works.  As  I  write, 
the  Pelagian  treatises  lie  open  before  me.  I  do 
not  find,  as  I  turn  their  pages,  upon  which  cer- 
tainly the  deepest  convictions  and  profoundest 
experiences  of  Augustine  are  recorded,  nor  can 
I  recall  from  previous  prolonged  study,  a  single 
passage  in  which  distinctly  Roman  elements  con- 
tribute to  his  views  of  doctrine  or  life  in  any  very 
special  sense.  The  same  is  true  of  his  Confes- 
sions, which  might  have  been  written,  for  the 
most  part,  by  any  repentant  sinner  of  the  Prot- 
estant nineteenth  century.  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux,  Abbot  and  mystic,  was  a  favorite  author 
of  Calvin's ;  but  it  was  surely  not  a  truly  Roman- 
ized piety  which  endeared  him  to  the  great  foun- 
der of  French  and  Anglo-Saxon  Protestantism. 
A  careful  perusal  of  the  recently  issued  Life  of 
Cardinal  Manning  will  leave  the  reader  in  consid- 
erable doubt  whether  this  great  defender  of  the 
authority  and  even  the  infallibility  of  the  papacy 
was  much  touched  in  his  personal  religious  life 
by  the  peculiarities  of  Romanism.  The  thing 
which  has  made  the  religious  experience  of  the 
great  leaders  and  of  the  common  mass  of  Cathol- 
icism has  been,  after  all,  the  direct  work  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  soul.     In  fact,  it  is  because  of  the 


The  Church  255 

presence  of  the  Spirit,  who  has  not  utterly  for- 
saken Catholicism,  that  the  church  is  to  them  the 
church ;  and  their  experience,  rightly  interpreted, 
speaks  for  nothing  more. 

What  we  have  thus  endeavored  to  show  is  that 
originally  believers  composed  the  church;  that, 
wherever  believers  were  gathered  together  in  or- 
ganized fellowship,  there  was  the  church;  and 
that,  accordingly,  the  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
church  was  and  is  found  in  the  experience  of 
sanctification  on  the  part  of  those  who  com- 
posed it.  And  we  have  sought,  very  briefly,  to 
indicate  that  this  continued  to  be  true  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  organization  of  the  church 
moved  on  other  lines  so  as  finally  to  identify  the 
church  with  the  external  institution  of  the  hier- 
archy. 

The  Reformation  was  a  time  of  revolution  in 
the  conception  of  the  church.  This  was,  indeed, 
its  chief  outward  token,  proceeding  from  its  chief 
inward  characteristic,  that  it  was  profoundly  a 
spiritual  movement.  Luther  found  peace  with 
God  not  only  apart  from  the  machinery  of  the 
church,  but  after  he  had  faithfully  tried  that 
machinery  over  long  stretches  of  weary  time  and 
found  it  to  fail.  Still  he  might  not  have  realized 
what  this  meant  for  the  doctrine  of  the  church 
had  he  not  been  violently  excommunicated.  Then 
both  he  and  his  followers,  if  they  were  to  have 
any  church  life  at  all,  must  find  it  in  some  other 
organization.    So  he  came  soon  to  see.    In  1520 


256  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
he  wrote :  "  Let  him  who  will  not  err  hold  fast 
to  this,  that  the  Christian  church  [Christenheit] 
is  a  spiritual  assembly  of  souls  in  one  faith,  and 
that  no  one  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  Christian  on 
account  of  his  body  [that  is,  his  visible  connection 
with  a  visible  church]  ;  so  that  he  may  know  that 
the  natural,  proper,  right,  essential  church 
[Christenheit]  consists  in  the  Spirit  and  in  no  ex- 
ternal thing,  whatever  it  may  be  called."  .  .  . 
"  The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  seen  but  be- 
lieved," that  is,  cannot  be  entirely  lacking  wher- 
ever the  word  of  God  is  preached.  "  Wherever 
thou  seest  and  hearest  the  preaching  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  from  whatever  person,  doubt  not  that 
the  church  is  there."* 

This  was  the  position  taken  ten  years  later 
when  the  Augsburg  Confession  came  to  be  writ- 
ten. The  church  was  the  inward,  invisible  "  com- 
munion of  saints  " ;  or,  as  the  Apology  defined, 
"  the  society  of  faith  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
hearts  ".  But  the  church  has  its  visible  form, 
and  this  is  to  be  distinguished  by  going  back 
again  in  thought  to  the  spiritual  essence.  It  is 
produced  by  the  "  word  of  God " ;  and  hence 
wherever  "  the  gospel  is  rightly  taught  and  the 
sacraments  rightly  administered ",  that  is,  ad- 
ministered "  according  to  the  gospel ",  there  is 
the  church,  nothing  more  being  necessary  to  the 

*  Quoted    by     Thomasius,     "  Dogmengeschichte",    II., 
201,  from  "  Vom  Papstthum  zu  Rom.'* 


The  Church  257 

"  true  unity  of  the  church  ".^  Zwingli  held  the 
same  view  with  more  emphasis  on  the  "  word  " 
and  less  upon  the  "  sacraments  ".  "  Wherever  ", 
says  Calvin,^  "  the  word  of  God  is  purely 
preached  and  heard,  and  the  sacraments  admin- 
istered according  to  the  institution  of  Christ, 
there  is  undoubtedly  a  church  of  Christ."  As 
Luther  had  meant  by  the  phrase  "  rightly 
taught "  and  by  the  "  pure  word "  that  which 
centered  in  Jesus  Christ,  held  him  up  as  Saviour, 
and  was  operative  in  souls  through  his  divine 
power,^  so  Calvin  did  not  mean  by  "  pure  preach- 
ing "  perfect  preaching,  but  that  which  embraced 
the  great  doctrines  of  the  gospel  and  was  essen- 
tially correct.  The  proof  of  the  preaching,  and  so 
ultimately  of  the  genuineness  of  the  church,  was 
the  work  of  conversion  and  sanctification  actually 
performed. 

With  this  result  all  the  Reformers  and  all  the 
Reformation  creeds  are  in  an  agreement  which 
seems  to  me  nothing  less  than  wonderful.  The 
First  Helvetic  Confession  reads :  "  Of  the  living 
stones  which  are  built  upon  this  living  rock  is  one 
holy  general  church  built,  the  communion  and 
assembly  of  all  saints.  .  .  .  and  it  is  assem- 
bled through  the  word  of  God."*    The  Heidel- 

*  Schaff,  "  Creeds  ",  vol.  III.,  p.  12. 
'  Institutes,  IV.,  i,  9. 

'Well  put  by  Harnack,  " Dogmengeschichte"  (Ger- 
man), III.,  p.  705. 

*  Schaff,  "  Creeds  ",  vol.  III.,  p.  218  f. 


258  Christian  Life  and  Theology- 
berg  Catechism  reads :  "  Out  of  the  whole  hu- 
man race  .  .  .  the  Son  of  God  by  his  Spirit 
and  word  gathers,  defends,  and  preserves  for 
himself  unto  everlasting  life,  a  chosen  commun- 
ion in  the  unity  of  the  true  faith."^  More  dis- 
tinct and  clear  yet  is  the  French  Confession, 
originally  prepared  by  Calvin :  "  The  true  church 
.  .  .  is  the  company  of  the  faithful  followers 
who  agree  to  follow  his  word  and  the  pure  reli- 
gion it  teaches ;  who  grow  in  grace  all  their  lives, 
believing  and  becoming  more  confirmed  in  the 
fear  of  God."^  Thus  the  church  is  the  sphere  of 
sanctification.  The  English  Articles  from  1563, 
through  1 57 1,  and  in  their  American  form,  1801, 
read :  "  The  visible  church  of  Christ  is  a  congre- 
gation of  faithful  men  in  which  the  pure  word 
of  God  is  preached  and  the  sacraments  be  duly 
administered  according  to  Christ's  ordinance  in 
all  those  things  that  of  necessity  are  requisite  to 
the  same."^  And  Westminister :  "  Particular 
churches  which  are  members  of  the  catholic,  vis- 
ible church  of  Christ,  are  more  or  less  pure  ac- 
cording as  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel  is  taught 
and  embraced,  ordinances  administered,  and  pub- 
lic worship  performed  more  or  less  purely  in 
them.  "* 

This  uniformity  of  confession  came  out  of  uni- 

^  Ibidem,  p.  324. 
"  Ibidem,  p.  375. 

*  Ibidem,  p.  499. 

*  Ibidem,  p.  658. 


The  Church  259 

formity  of  experience  in  the  Protestant  churches. 
When  the  reformation  of  the  church  had  been  set 
in  motion  in  Wittenberg  during  Luther's  year  in 
the  Wartburg,  it  was  found  that  the  spiritual  ex- 
periences which  belong  to  the  church  were  not 
only  still  enjoyed  but  even  greatly  intensified  un- 
der the  new  order.  Prayer  was  a  greater  reality. 
Approach  to  God  was  rendered  easier  and  com- 
munion with  him  more  intimate  when  it  was 
separated  from  the  ceremonies  of  the  old  church. 
The  Lord's  Supper,  administered  without  the 
mass,  and  under  both  kinds,  was  made  a  new 
office  and  the  channel  of  more  abundant  grace. 
Luther  himself  neither  could  nor  would  turn  back 
the  evangelical  tide.  There  was  a  new,  great^ 
deep,  religious  life  in  the  University  and  city. 
The  holy  church  was  certainly  still  surviving  be- 
cause its  holy  fruits  were  found  on  every  side. 
Such  is  the  testimony  of  the  men  of  Wittenberg. 
But  we  are  not  confined  to  their  testimony.  Ob- 
jective facts  remain  accessible  to  us  to  testify  to 
the  presence  there  in  those  days  of  the  Spirit  of 
God.  The  faithful  translation  of  the  Scriptures, 
which  was  so  eagerly  welcomed,  testifies  of  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  times.  People  do  not  thus 
produce  nor  welcome  what  they  do  not  love ;  and 
to  love  the  Scriptures  is  to  "  abide  in  Christ's 
word  ".  The  multiplication  of  Christian  schools 
in  humble  parishes  throughout  the  land,  so  that 
no  village  was  to  be  so  remote  from  the  great 
centers  of  influence  as  to  be  deprived  of  the  light 


26o       Christian  Life  and  Theology 

of  learning  and  of  the  word  of  the  gospel,  was 
a  Christian  work.  Not  less  the  founding  of  the 
universities,  which  has  gone  on  down  to  our  day, 
where  truth  and  truth  alone  has  been  sought,  and 
where  Christian  truth  has  received,  with  all  the 
actual  drawbacks,  its  best  defence  and  greatest 
extension.  The  great  increase  of  practical  benefi- 
cence is  another  objective  proof  of  the  presence 
of  the  Spirit  in  these  churches.  Luther  denied 
the  special  sacredness  of  the  monastic  life  and 
made  the  "  calling  "  of  the  Christian  to  lie  in  his 
common  daily  work,  in  which  by  the  exercise  of 
the  Christian  virtues,  by  honesty  and  kindness  and 
faithfulness,  he  was  to  glorify  God.  The  imme- 
diate result  was  not  only  the  diminution  of  false 
"  good  works  ",  pilgrimages  and  self-mortifica- 
tions, but  the  increase  of  the  positive  virtues. 
Feuds  ceased.  Oppression  of  the  poor  by  the 
rich  ceased.  General  prosperity  followed  in  the 
wake  of  better  ideas  of  industry  and  common  la- 
bor. Everything  began  to  tend  upwards.  The 
Dutch  were  inspired  to  begin  and  maintain  their 
eighty  years'  war  with  Spain  for  liberty  and  re- 
ligion, and  the  first  and  severest  blow  was  given 
to  that  cruel  world-wide  empire,  of  the  like  of 
which  it  has  at  length  died.  Explorations  took 
new  life,  and  where  commerce  went  the  church 
went,  or  else  the  church  went  and  commerce  fol- 
lowed, till  new  nation  after  new  nation  had  been 
formed,  some  of  them  to  burst  all  the  remaining 
bonds  of  tyranny  and  to  stand  forth  at  last  pre- 


The  Church  261 

eminently  free  and  Christian  in  a  new  and  unim- 
agined  degree.  The  books  of  those  early  Protes- 
tants may  now  be  read,  and  they  speak  the  Spirit 
of  Christ.  "  If  there  be  any  fellowship  of  the 
Spirit  "  between  the  Christian  ages,  and  if  to-day 
there  is  any  Christian  spirituality  among  Chris- 
tian men  by  profession,  then  those  early  writers 
were  Christians  and  had  the  Spirit,  for  his  marks 
are  to  be  found  in  their  words.  And,  if  anything 
more  is  needed  to  close  and  confirm  this  long  re- 
cital of  accumulating  proofs,  let  one  be  added  to 
which  Rome  has  always  attached  the  greatest  im- 
portance, the  testimony  of  martyrs  who  shed  their 
blood  willingly  for  the  faith  of  Jesus.  Like  Blan- 
dina,  and  Perpetua  and  Felicitas  of  the  early 
church,  so  many  a  maiden,  and  like  Ignatius  and 
Cyprian  many  a  bishop,  laid  down  their  lives  with 
joy  and  with  the  name  of  Jesus  upon  their  lips. 
True,  Rome  slew  them  herself;  but  that  fact 
neither  unsays  their  triumphant  confession  of 
faith  in  Jesus  in  the  hour  of  death,  nor  makes 
them  heretics.  It  rather  shows  that  "  holy " 
Rome,  like  pagan  Rome,  has  been  "  drunken  with 
the  blood  of  the  saints  and  with  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  of  Jesus." 

The  exclusive  claims  of  Rome  to  be  the  true 
church  are  thus  exploded  by  the  force  of  experi- 
ence. She  has  no  monopoly  of  the  Spirit  and 
thus  no  monopoly  of  the  church ;  for  it  is  incredi- 
ble that  God  should  bless  Protestant  churches 
with  his  favor,  as  he  has,  if  in  his  purpose  and  by 


262        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

his  holy  law  they  are  so  astray  from  the  right  way 
as  the  theories  of  Rome  teach.  But  every  form 
of  the  doctrine  of  "  apostolical  succession  ",  Hmit- 
ing  the  valid  church  to  that  episcopally  organized 
and  possessing  the  **  succession  ",  is  equally  ex- 
ploded by  experience.  This  further  step  of  argu- 
ment we  must  take  before  we  have  answered  fully 
the  question  set  before  us  by  the  proposal  of  the 
Lambeth  conditions  of  Christian  union.  The 
English  church,  with  its  American  daughter,  is 
the  chief  representative  of  this  theory.  We  shall 
hence  discuss  it  with  sole  reference  to  her. 

Among  the  creeds  already  quoted  for  the  uni- 
versal Reformation  view  of  the  church  are  in- 
cluded the  English  Articles.  Although  "  Arch- 
bishops and  Bishops  "  are  mentioned  in  them,  and 
reference  is  made  to  the  forms  of  consecration 
found  in  the  prayer-book,  there  is  nothing  in 
either  articles  or  book  to  teach  anything  more 
than  the  doctrine  held  in  the  English  church  by 
multitudes  since  the  Reformation,  that  the  episco- 
pacy is  essential  to  the  well-being,  not  the  being, 
of  the  Church.  However  much  the  general  tone 
of  the  church  may  have  favored  the  exclusive 
theory  of  apostolical  succession,  her  official  doc- 
trine has  never  gone  further  than  this.  The  gen- 
eral recognition  of  the  validity  of  the  non-episco- 
pal orders  of  the  continental  churches  in  Eng- 
land for  a  long  period  confirms  the  statement 
here  made  as  to  the  doctrine  of  the  church.  The 
Anglican   leaders  could  not  deny  that  the  churches 


The  Church  1263 

of  the  continent  organized  congregationally  or  in 
the  presbyterian  mode  had  the  Spirit,  and  so  were 
true  churches  of  Jesus  Christ. 

These  are  matters  of  history  and  so  of  interest. 
But  granting  the  claims  of  some  high-church 
leaders  of  the  present  day,  and  admitting  that  the 
Church  of  England  has  always  declined  to  rec- 
ognize the  validity  of  the  orders  of  the  non-epis- 
copally  organized  churches,  we  maintain  that  this 
position  is  wrong,  and  we  urge  our  objection  by 
arguments  drawn  from  the  history  of  the  same 
English  Church.  If  anyone  will  read  the  history 
of  English  Puritanism  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth 
and  her  immediate  successors  as  it  is  sketched  by 
John  Richard  Green,  for  example,  he  will  find 
what  sort  of  a  religious  life  developed  in  the  most 
anti-prelatical  atmosphere  which  England  ever 
knew.  The  new  knowledge  of  the  Bible  which 
the  people  then  gained  developed  the  religious 
spirit  among  both  high  and  low.  Religion,  Cal- 
vinism, and  Puritanism  all  grew  together.  Par- 
liament would  not  transact  business  upon  Sun- 
day ;  ceremonies  were  abolished  till  divine  service 
was  performed  with  the  greatest  simplicity;  and 
interest  in  theology  and  religion  dominated  even 
the  literary  life  of  the  people.  But  best  were  the 
fruits  of  this  movement  in  the  department  of  per- 
sonal character.  "  The  meanest  peasant  ",  says 
Green,  "  felt  himself  ennobled  as  a  child  of  God. 
The  proudest  noble  recognized  a  spiritual  equality 
in  the  poorest  *  saints  *.    The  great  social  revolu- 


264        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

tion  of  the  civil  wars  and  the  Protectorate  was  al- 
ready felt  in  the  demeanor  of  English  gentlemen. 
*  He  had  a  loving  and  sweet  courtesy  to  the  poor- 
est ',  we  are  told  of  one  of  them, '  and  would  often 
employ  many  spare  hours  with  the  commonest 
soldiers  and  the  poorest  laborers  \  '  He  never 
disdained  the  meanest  nor  flattered  the  great- 
est. ' "  Of  a  London  housewife  of  the  middle 
class  it  was  said :  "  She  was  very  loving  and  obe- 
dient to  her  parents,  loving  and  kind  to  her  hus- 
band, very  tender  hearted  to  her  children,  loving 
all  that  were  godly,  much  misliking  the  wicked 
and  profane.  She  was  a  pattern  of  sobriety  unto 
many."  "  Home  ",  says  Green,  "  as  we  conceive 
it  now,  was  the  creation  of  the  Puritan."  With- 
out the  excesses  of  austerity  into  which  persecu- 
tion subsequently  drove  the  Puritans,  this  early 
Puritanism  gave  every  evidence  of  possessing 
the  Spirit  of  God. 

It  was,  however,  still  within  the  pale  of  the 
church.  It  had  grown  up  under  low-church  bish- 
ops. And  when,  now.  Laud  appeared,  with  his 
fondness  for  greater  ceremony  and  pomp,  greater 
authority  of  the  bishops,  etc., — for  all  those 
things,  in  short,  in  indissoluble  connection  with 
which  the  papal  and  the  high-Anglican  view  of 
the  church  stands, — spiritual  tendencies  ought, 
on  the  prelatical  theory,  to  have  become  even 
stronger.  The  notorious  truth  is  that  the  spir- 
itual elements  of  church  and  nation  were  driven 
into  rebellion,  and  the  outcome  was  the  church  of 


The  Church  265 

the  Revolution  and  the  state  of  Cromwell.  Who 
questions  where  the  Spirit  really  was,  with  Laud, 
his  ceremonies  and  his  tyranny,  or  with  the  Puri- 
tans, who  with  all  the  unfortunate  growth  of  their 
hard  austerity,  were  still  capable  of  such  a  gov- 
ernment in  the  state  as  Cromwell's  is  now  well 
understood  to  have  been,  and  of  such  leaders  as 
Bunyan  and  Baxter  among  pastors  and  of  the 
Westminster  divines  among  theologians?  It  is 
too  well  known  to  demand  proof  that  the  great  in- 
terest of  these  excommunicated  and  abhorred 
schismatics  from  a  papalized  church  system  was 
concentrated  upon  the  "  doctrines  of  grace ", 
upon  repentance  and  faith,  and  upon  holy  living. 
They  were  practical  reformers  of  the  most  earn- 
est type.  It  is  Green's  testimony  that  they  set 
in  motion  public  improvements  for  which  Eng- 
land, which  annulled  them  at  the  Restoration  of 
the  Stuarts,  has  had  since  to  wait  till  our  own 
day.  They  emphasized  the  deeper  elements  of  a 
spiritual  and  practical  theology.  They  put  the 
proof  of  the  Scriptures  upon  the  basis  of  the  "  tes- 
timony of  the  Spirit  "  in  the  first  chapter  of  their 
Confession,  and  they  emphasized  the  possibility 
of  "  assurance  "  of  salvation,  and  the  *'  duty  "  of 
"  attaining  thereunto  ".  They  had  the  Spirit ; 
and  their  church  without  bishops  was  a  true 
church  of  Christ. 

A  hundred  years  later  the  full  effect  of  the  Res- 
toration, by  which  the  most  earnest  and  pious  of 
the  Church  of  England  had  been  driven  from  her 


266        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

pale,  was  being  sadly  felt.  The  "  succession " 
was  with  the  church,  but  the  life  of  the  church 
was  far  from  the  standards  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
clergy  were  drunken,  sport-loving,  formal  in  their 
reHgion,  unfaithful  to  their  people,  and  largely 
tinctured  with  heresy  in  their  doctrine.  The  great 
masses  of  the  people  were  sunk  in  irreligion  and 
immorality.  But  there  arose  in  the  bosom  of  the 
church  itself  a  reformer,  a  travelling  evangelist, 
who  preached  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  and 
brought  great  multitudes  to  conviction  of  sin  and 
to  earnest  religious  lives.  The  movement  ex- 
tended across  the  seas  to  our  own  continent  and 
has  now  become  world-wide  and  developed  one  of 
the  most  vigorous  of  existing  religious  commun- 
ions. Although  Wesley  was  a  loyal  son  of  the 
English  church  and  sought  to  keep  his  societies 
fully  within  the  pale  of  the  establishment,  they 
were  in  fact  cast  out,  and  eventually  this  leader, 
himself  nothing  but  a  common  presbyter,  was 
obliged  to  ordain  "  bishops  "  for  the  American 
societies.  Thus  Methodism  has  no  "  succes- 
sion ".  But  where  was  the  Spirit  of  God  in  those 
early  days?  With  the  fox-hunting  parson,  who 
sometimes  officiated  in  his  hunting  boots,  and 
droned  the  service  to  empty  pews?  Or  with  the 
Methodist  itinerant,  consumed  with  a  zeal  for 
souls,  and  preaching  to  a  multitude  gathered  upon 
the  village  common,  of  thieves  and  loose  livers, 
who  groaned  under  the  burden  of  their  sins  and 
rose  from  their  knees  to  be  chaste  and  honest? 


The  Church  267 

As  to  the  eflfects  of  Methodism  upon  the  Eng- 
Hsh  nation  I  quote  again  from  Green.  The  ef- 
fects the  movement  wrought  show  what  it  was. 
"  The  Methodists  themselves,"  he  says,  "  were 
the  least  result  of  the  Methodist  revival.  Its  ac- 
tion upon  the  church  broke  the  lethargy  of  the 
clergy ;  and  the  *  evangelical '  movement,  which 
found  representatives  like  Newton  and  Cecil  with- 
in the  establishment,  made  the  fox-hunting  parson 
and  the  absentee  rector  at  last  impossible.  In 
Walpole's  day  the  English  clergy  were  the  idlest 
and  most  lifeless  in  the  world.  In  our  own  day 
no  body  of  religious  ministers  surpass  them  in 
piety,  in  philanthropic  energy,  or  in  popular  re- 
gard. In  the  nation  at  large  appeared  a  new 
moral  enthusiasm,  which,  rigid  and  pedantic  as  it 
often  seemed,  was  still  healthy  in  its  social  tone, 
and  whose  power  was  seen  in  the  disappearance 
of  the  profligacy  which  had  disgraced  the  upper 
classes  and  the  foulness  which  had  infested  liter- 
ature ever  since  the  Restoration.  A  new  philan- 
thropy reformed  our  prisons,  infused  clemency 
and  wisdom  into  our  penal  laws,  abolished  the 
slave  trade,  and  gave  the  first  impulse  to  popular 
education."  Truly  in  such  a  movement  was  pres- 
ent the  Spirit  of  God. 

Shortly  before  Wesley  began  preaching  in  Eng- 
land, Jonathan  Edwards  began  his  labors  in 
Northampton,  Massachusetts.  Both  were  revival 
preachers ;  and  it  is  believed  that  Edwards'  "  Nar- 
rative of  Surprising  Conversions  "  was  one  of  the 


268        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

determinative  influences  which  led  to  Wesley's 
career.  The  evidences  that  Edwards  had  the 
Spirit,  and  that  the  community  of  unprelatical 
Congregationalists  in  which  he  stood  was  a  true 
church  of  God  is  much  the  same  as  that  furnished 
by  the  career  of  Wesley  for  the  same  proposition. 
Spiritual  effects  of  spiritual  preaching  were  abun- 
dant. "  There  were  remarkable  tokens  of  God's 
presence ",  says  Edwards,  "  in  almost  every 
house.  It  was  a  time  of  joy  in  families  on  ac- 
count of  salvation  being  brought  unto  them ;  par- 
ents rejoicing  over  their  children  as  new-born, 
and  husbands  over  their  wives,  and  wives  over 
their  husbands.  The  goings  of  God  were  then 
seen  in  his  sanctuary,  God's  day  was  a  delight 
and  his  tabernacles  were  amiable."  Multitudes 
were  admitted  to  the  membership  of  the  church, 
a  hundred  at  a  time.  The  work  spread  to  other 
communities  till  it  pervaded  New  England,  and 
spreading  thence,  finally  reached  every  one  of  the 
thirteen  colonies  in  greater  or  less  measure.  Or, 
if  we  prefer  to  seek  our  evidence  of  the  presence 
of  the  sanctifying  Spirit  in  more  tangible  things 
than  exclusively  religious  exercises,  the  same  ef- 
fects in  the  department  of  good  morals  attended 
this  work  as  had  Wesley's.  The  license  of  be- 
haviour among  the  young  people  of  Northamp- 
ton, amounting  to  licentiousness,  was  checked; 
and  they  became  orderly  and  sober  in  their  con- 
duct. New  England  has  always  retained  much 
of  the  Puritan  spirit,  but  it  had  then  suffered 


The  Church  269 

some  eclipse.  It  was  revived.  The  impulse  was 
given  which  was  sufficient  to  carry  that  region  of 
our  country  through  the  demoralizations  of  the 
War  of  the  Revolution.  And  when,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century,  the  revival  broke 
out  which  brought  to  an  end  French  infidelity  in 
Yale  College  and  prepared  the  New  England 
churches  for  the  Unitarian  conflict  in  Massachu- 
setts, it  was  a  direct  consequence  of  the  earlier 
revival.  Timothy  Dwight,  Nathaniel  Emmons, 
and  their  co-laborers,  were  not  only  men  of  the 
spirit  of  Edwards,  but  had  been  trained  in  his 
school.  Or,  if  we  prefer  to  pass  by  every  outer  ev- 
idence and  get  the  answer  of  our  question  from 
Edwards  himself,  his  books  remain ;  and  who  that 
reads  can  doubt  his  possession  of  the  presence  and 
blessing  of  the  Spirit  of  God?  He  exalted  God 
supremely, — even,  indeed,  sometimes  to  the  eff ace- 
ment  of  man — he  grounded  the  proof  of  the 
Scriptures  in  the  experience  of  the  soul  illumi- 
nated by  the  Spirit ;  he  introduced  the  work  of  re- 
vival by  preaching  the  great  spiritual  doctrine  of 
Protestantism,  that  of  justification  by  faith;  he 
exalted  the  love  of  God,  but  did  not  forget  his 
justice ;  and  he  made  the  center  of  his  preaching 
and  teaching  the  person  of  Christ.  This  was  the 
"  pure  preaching  "  of  the  Protestant  fathers.  If 
they  understood  the  matter  at  all,  the  church  at 
Northampton  was  a  true  church  of  Christ. 

We  hasten  the  argument  to  its  conclusion.     Is 
there  evidence  that  the  churches  outside  of  th^ 


270        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

"  apostolical  succession  "  have  the  Spirit  of  God 
to-day?  Over  against  the  Roman  and  Anglican 
"  Catholicism  "  we  set  the  great  mass  of  Protes- 
tant churches  of  every  name,  and  invite  compari- 
son. Have  they  the  Scriptures?  So  have  we. 
Have  they  labored  in  Christian  missions  for  the 
conversion  of  the  heathen?  So  have  we.  Have 
they  developed  a  Christian  literature  ?  We  more. 
Have  they  given  themselves  to  the  labors  of  prac- 
tical philanthropy  ?  We  have  labored  more  abun- 
dantly than  they  all.  Have  they  sought  to  main- 
tain a  high  standard  of  ministerial  and  private 
morality  ?  Nowhere  have  they  succeeded  as  well 
as  where  they  have  been  provoked  by  sharp  com- 
petition with  us.  "  I  speak  as  a  fool ",  but  I 
speak  of  the  triumphs  of  the  grace  of  God  through 
human  instrumentalities. 

Take  the  simple  matter  of  the  Scriptures.  The 
collateral  studies  for  their  better  explanation, 
which  are  specially  characteristic  of  our  own  time, 
geographical  explorations,  archaeological  investi- 
gations, the  study  of  Assyriology  and  Egyptol- 
ogy, etc.,  etc.,  are  matters  of  Protestant  scholar- 
ship rather  than  Roman,  and  among  the  English 
more  of  the  broad  church  than  of  the  high.  The 
"  Catholic  Dictionary  "  of  Thomas  Arnold  says 
of  Meyer  that  he  is  "  perhaps  the  most  eminent 
who  has  appeared  in  our  time  "  among  New  Tes- 
tament scholars.  Granting  all  the  scholarship  of 
the  English  church  and  universities  to  the  Cath- 
olic party, — and  such  an  admission  is  far  from 


The  Church  ayi 

the  fact — still  it  would  remain  that  "  schismatic  " 
Germany  leads  the  world  of  biblical  scholarship. 

One  of  the  greatest  marks  of  true  spiritual  life 
in  our  own  day  is  the  recently  accomp*lished  revis- 
ion of  the  English  translation  of  the  Bible.  The 
result  has  never  been  surpassed  among  biblical 
translations  for  consistency  and  accuracy.  Upon 
it  nearly  all  the  great  divisions  of  English  and 
American  Protestantism  have  had  representation, 
and  it  has  not  become  known  to  the  public  that  the 
"  non-conformists "  fell  any  whit  behind  their 
"  catholic  "  neighbors  in  zeal  or  in  service. 

Or,  if  we  look  at  the  work  of  missions,  and 
select  as  our  example  that  ancient  nation  just  now 
coming  out  of  the  seclusion  and  darkness  of  cen- 
turies of  heathenism  into  the  civilization,  and,  we 
trust,  the  Christian  faith  of  the  European  world, 
Japan,  the  facts  speak  no  less  emphatically  for 
the  presence  of  the  divine  Spirit  with  our  simple 
and  non-prelatical  churches.  I  would  say  noth- 
ing to  diminish  the  luster  of  that  most  remarka- 
ble fact,  the  survival  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  Ja- 
pan through  centuries  of  oppression  under  com- 
plete isolation  from  other  Christian  countries. 
But  it  is  undeniable  that  Protestant  missions, 
since  the  opening  of  Japan  to  outside  influences, 
have  exhibited  a  vigor  and  made  a  degree  of 
progress  with  which  Romanism  has  nothing  to 
be  compared.  And  of  Protestant  missions,  those 
prosecuted  by  Presbyterians  and  Congregation- 
alists  have  proved  most  successful  when  tested  by 


ay^        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

the  only  test  which  admits  of  objective  estimation, 
that  of  numbers.  Or,  if  we  may  enter  the  sub- 
jective sphere,  who  that  reads  the  Hfe  of  Neesima 
can  doubt  that  he  was  a  holy  man,  moved  by  the 
most  profound  desire  to  bring  his  countrymen  to 
Christ?  John  Paton  in  the  New  Hebrides,  Wil- 
liams and  Ashmore  in  China,  Moffat,  Grout,  and 
Livingstone  in  Africa,  Rhea  among  the  Nesto- 
rians,  Dwight,  Hamlin,  Christie  in  Turkey,  and 
unnumbered  heroes  elsewhere,  have  they  not  man- 
ifested the  same  spirit,  the  creation  of  the  divine 
Spirit,  as  Bishops  Patteson,  Hannington,  and 
Heber,  with  the  Jesuit  Xavier,  and  the  thousands 
of  priests  and  laymen  of  Catholicism  in  ancient 
and  modern  times?  We  can  claim  no  monopoly 
of  missionary  zeal  for  the  protesting  churches; 
but  if  such  zeal  is  a  token  of  the  Spirit  among 
"  Catholics  ",  is  it  not  also  when  found,  as  it  un- 
deniably is  and  in  large  measure,  among  those 
who  have  no  episcopal  ordination  of  any  sort  ? 

And  what  of  the  reverse?  Does  episcopal  or- 
dination everywhere  and  always  convey  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit?  I  let  Dr.  John  Watson  answer, 
as  he  recently  did  in  the  following  words: — 

"  I  take  this  abject,  this  poor  wretch  of  a  Brazil- 
ian priest,  one  of  the  lowest  types  under  a  minis- 
try of  any  kind  that  can  be  discovered — I  take 
him,  ignorant,  dirty,  evil-living,  not  intelligent 
enough  either  to  believe  or  not  believe,  I  take  that 
creature  and  I  say :  Then  that  is  a  valid  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ?    Yes!  Then  I  bring  in  John 


The  Church  273 

Bunyan.  What  of  him?  Was  he  a  minister  of 
Jesus  Christ?  No;  never  properly  ordained! 
Had  he  any  right  to  administer  a  sacrament? 
None!  Was  the  sacrament  ineffective  from  his 
hand  ?  Yes !  Was  he  an  intruder  ?  Yes !  Was 
he  an  impostor?  Yes!  Is  there  any  hope  for 
him  ?  *  Uncovenanted  mercies  ' ! — I  remember 
the  sermons  he  preached,  wherein  he  took  sinners 
in  his  arms  and  Hterally  carried  them  up  to  the 
mercy  seat  that  they  could  not  escape  from  the 
salvation  of  God.  I  remember  his  Hfe  in  Bedford 
gaol  and  all  that  he  suffered  for  the  Lord.  And 
I  remember  the  book  wherein  he  has  opened  up 
the  deeps  below  and  the  heights  above,  and  has 
made  the  way  luminous  for  millions  that  they 
may  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And 
when  I  hear  that  that  creature  is  a  minister  of 
Christ  and  this  great  prophet  is  an  impostor,  then 
I  go  down  upon  my  knees  and  implore  God  that 
from  this  debasing  error  and  superstition  he 
would  be  pleased  to  save  us  and  our  children  after 
us." 

That  word  "  superstition  "  is  Watson's ;  but  I 
will  not  fail  of  my  duty  to  take  its  full  burden 
upon  my  own  shoulders.  What  less  does  it  de- 
serve to  be  called  ? 

Thus  we  have  sought  to  establish  our  conten- 
tion (i)  that  the  church  is  the  sphere  of  sancti- 
fication,  so  that  "  where  the  Spirit  is,  there  is  the 
church,  and  where  the  church  is  ",  the  living,  vi- 
tal, true  church,  "there  is  the  Spirit";  and  (2) 


274        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

that  the  non-episcopal  churches  of  the  Reforma- 
tion abundantly  possess  the  Spirit,  and  so  are 
members  of  the  true  visible  church  of  God  on 
earth.  To  you  I  leave  the  decision  whether  I 
have  interpreted  the  voice  of  experience  correctly 
and  whether  it  does  thus  speak  for  the  contention. 

And  thus  we  have  come  to  the  limit  of  our  dis- 
cussions together  of  high  and  sacred  themes.  I 
hope  the  following  main  positions  have  been 
clearly  established  in  the  estimation  of  you  all, 
whatever  dissent  any  of  you  may  have  to  enter  as 
to  minor  matters  and  mere  details.  If  these  are 
secure,  I  shall  have  attained  the  purpose  of  my 
labors, — these  viz. — 

(i)  Christian  experience  is  capable  of  logical 
analysis  and  of  rigorously  scientific  treatment. 
If  it  were  a  matter  of  mere  fancy,  a  flow  of  mere 
feeling,  transitory,  vague,  and  shallow,  or  a  se- 
ries of  prejudices  and  of  empirical  notions,  it 
would  possess  no  value  for  the  purposes  of  a  so- 
ber theology.  But  it  is  none  of  these.  At  bot- 
tom it  is  known  by  the  immediate  consciousness ; 
and  in  all  its  grades  it  may  be  tested  by  appropri- 
ate processes  by  which  a  reliable  and  universally 
valid  result  may  be  obtained.  Thus  our  theology 
is  no  "  theology  of  the  feelings  "  when  that  is  un- 
derstood as  a  jumble  of  sentimentalities;  but, 
however  much  it  may  affect  the  feelings,  a  theol- 
ogy of  realities  and  of  reason. 

(2)  Thus  analyzed,  Christian  experience  speaks 


The  Church  275 

for  the  system  of  evangelical  doctrine  believed  in 
substance  by  all  the  great  churches  which  base 
their  theology  upon  the  Bible.  The  view  we 
have  taken  of  this  system  has  been  confined  to  its 
determinative  portions  and  has  considered  these 
only  in  their  vital  core;  but  we  have  developed 
from  experience  the  Christian  view  of  the  sinful 
world,  and  the  doctrines  of  God,  of  regeneration  by 
God,  of  prevenient  grace,  of  justification  by  faith, 
of  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  of  the  trinity,  of  the 
objective  atonement,  and  finally  of  sanctification 
by  the  Spirit  and  of  the  church  as  the  sphere  of 
sanctification.  If  any  man  believes  those  doc- 
trines, he  is  an  evangelical  Christian.  When  he 
has  brought  them  into  orderly  and  perfect  adjust- 
ment to  one  another  and  to  all  other  known  truth, 
he  has  gained  a  perfect  theology,  that  theology 
towards  which  we  all  with  unequal  steps  are 
hastening  as  we  can. 

Our  age  has  thus  already  performed  a  certain 
work  in  the  investigation  and  interpretation  of 
Christian  experience.  The  elements  of  the  sub- 
ject have  been  sufficiently  set  forth.  But  there 
remains  still  a  great  work  in  carrying  the  sub- 
ject out  into  its  details,  for  coming  generations  of 
laborers  to  perform,  and  among  them  for  you, 
young  men,  who  hear  me  to-day.  Two  great 
questions,  demanding  different  qualifications  in 
the  student  need  to  be  investigated  upon  the  larg- 
est scale. 

( I )  What  particular  doctrines  are  in  fact  asso- 


276        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

ciated  in  the  experience  of  the  Christian  church 
with  genuine,  pervasive,  and  active  piety?  To 
answer  this  question  the  investigator  will  need  a 
mind  of  rare  candor,  able  to  acknowledge  true 
piety  where  he  sees  it,  and  great  patience  to  gath- 
er and  classify  the  mass  of  material  that  is  await- 
ing him  in  history  and  in  contemporary  life.  He 
must  have  no  prejudices  against  any  people  how- 
ever narrow,  crooked,  perverse,  or  superstitious; 
for  from  them  all,  Quaker,  Mormon,  Romanist, 
something  may  be  gained,  negative  when  not  pos- 
itive. 

(2)  What  is  it  in  those  doctrines  which  actually 
elicits  and  promotes  this  ascertained  piety  ?  Here 
the  demand  will  be  for  analytical  acumen  and 
psychological  knowledge.  The  incompetent  in- 
vestigator will  be  confused  by  conflicting  claims. 
The  form  of  a  sacrament  or  a  doctrine  of  real 
presence  may  be  declared  by  some  Christian  to  be 
the  eliciting  cause  of  holy  exercises,  when  in  fact 
it  is  the  entire  surrender  of  himself  that  he  made, 
which  would  have  been  equally  effective  under 
any  other  doctrine  or  form.  If  there  are  true 
piety  and  wonderful  cures  at  the  shrine  of  St. 
Anne  de  Beaupre,  what  has  the  doctrine  of  saint- 
ly intercession  to  do  with  it,  and  what  not? 
Doubtless,  as  one  has  said :  "  You  can  produce 
any  kind  of  Christian  experience  you  want  " ;  but 
what  is  genuine,  and  what  has  produced  this? 
Those  two  questions  in  all  their  unlimited  rich- 


The  Church  1277 

ness  of  detail  I  hand  down  to  you  for  your  labo- 
rious solution. 

I  hope  we  may  also  carry  away  one  impression 
from  these  lectures,  one  feeling  which  shall  per- 
vade our  lives  and  especially  our  ministry,  a  feel- 
ing of  rock-like  certainty  as  to  the  main  things 
of  Christian  doctrine.  Gladstone  has  given  us 
a  great  figure  of  speech  which  I  would  employ  in 
impressing  my  thought,  in  his  title,  "  The  Im- 
pregnable Rock  of  Holy  Scripture."  There  are 
things  that  are  impregnable.  There  is  a  Rock. 
We  discuss  much ;  and  often,  for  the  sake  of  win- 
ning puzzled  men  to  clearer  views,  we  concede 
much.  We  sometimes  say.  If  there  is  a  God,  then 
so  and  so.  But  for  ourselves,  in  the  certainty  of 
our  own  knowledge,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  that 
"  if  ".  We  know  God.  We  know  also  Christ  in 
the  deepest  and  most  certain  experiences  of  our 
souls.  In  respect  to  such  things  as  these  prima- 
rily, but  truly  in  respect  to  all  the  great  main  posi- 
tions of  evangelical  theology,  we  know.  They 
are  not  matters  of  question  for  ourselves  or  for 
our  teaching.  There  may  be  an  apology  in  our 
pulpits  in  the  sense  of  a  defence  of  the  Christian 
principles  against  unbelief,  but  there  ought  not 
to  be,  and,  I  hope  and  pray,  for  us  there  never 
shall  be  the  atmosphere  of  faint-hearted  and  hes- 
itating apologizing.  Let  us  "  speak  that  we  do 
know ",  as  did  our  divine  Master  1    And  thus 


178        Christian  Life  and  Theology 

shall  the  witnessing  church  in  the  midst  of  a  hes- 
itating, doubting,  despairing  world,  which  has  no 
inward  light  to  receive  and  interpret  the  Light 
that  has  come  into  the  world,  be  a  messenger  of 
salvation  and  of  certainty. 

I  appropriate,  to  express  this  aspiration  the 
famiHar  stanza: — 

Oh,    make   thy    church,    dear    Saviour, 

A  lamp  of  burnished  gold. 
To  bear  before  the  nations 

Thy  true  light  as  of  old; 
Oh,  teach  thy  wandering  pilgrims 

By  this  their  path  to  trace, 
Till,  clouds  and  darkness  ended. 

They  see  thee  face  to  face. 


OF  TMJt 

■CTNIVERSITT 


"SlCAUFoeJii^ 


INDEX 


Abelard  on  the  atonement, 

222. 

Anselm  of  Canterbury,  on 
the  atonement,  220 ;  Cath- 
olic elements  in  his  doc- 
trine. 221. 

"  Apostolical  succession  ", 
doctrine  of,  exploded  by 
experience,  262 ;  absurd, 
272. 

Athanasius,  view  of  the  na- 
ture of  Christ,  166;  ap- 
peals to  experience,  169; 
philosophy  faulty,  170; 
his  "  immortal  service  ", 
171 ;  on  the  atonement, 
219. 

Atonement,  by  Christ,  196; 
voice  of  elementary  ex- 
perience upon.  196;  some- 
thing we  could  not  do  for 
ourselves,  201 ;  experi- 
ential elements  of,  201 ; 
biblical  doctrine  of,  207; 
course  of  Christian  his- 
tory as  to,  219 :  the  creeds, 
227;  verdict  of  history 
upon,  228;  false  theories 
of,  229;  Kaftan's  views 
of,  233. 

Augustine,  his  experience 
not  a  Romanizing  one, 
254- 

Authority  of  the  Bible,  93, 
104,  108;  in  religion,  192; 
final  position  as  to,  195. 


Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  the 
piety  of,  not  Romanizing, 
254. 

Bible,  a  witness  to  Chris- 
tian experience,  90;  Rit- 
schl's  canon,  90;  different 
elements  in,  91 ;  criticism, 
93 ;  authority.  93 ;  attitude 
of  the  Ritschlians  as  to, 
94,  103 ;  the  word  of  God, 
104 ;  determinative  ele- 
ments of,  10;  does  not 
supersede  experience, 

108;  unique,  117. 

Calvin  on  the  atonement, 
222;  on  the  church,  257. 

Causation,  discussed  by 
Kaftan,  80;  true  idea  of, 

83. 

Certainty,  attaching  to  ex- 
perience, of  different  de- 
grees, 37;  of  conviction 
and  of  preaching  neces- 
sary, 277, 

Christ,  doctrine  of  his  per- 
son, 133 ;  himself  the  ob- 
ject of  faith,  134;  experi- 
ential argument  for  his 
divinity.  134-142 ;  sum- 
mary of  the  argument, 
141 ;  New  Testament 
teaches  his  divinity,  142; 
history  also  for  it,  153; 
Athanasius'  view  of,  166; 
Ritschl's    view    of,    176; 


279 


28o 


Index 


doctrine  of  Christ's  work, 
i8s;  revelation  by,  185; 
authority  of,  186;  in  the 
whole  Bible,  187;  credi- 
bility as  a  witness,  194; 
work  of  the  atonement. 
196. 

Christology  of  John  and 
Paul  identical,  151. 

Church,  the,  238 ;  experience 
bears  upon  the  question 
what  it  is,  241 ;  exists 
where  the  Spirit  is,  243; 
in  the  New  Testament, 
243;  the  church  and  the 
Spirit,  245  ;  radical  change 
in,  246;  degeneration  in 
idea  of,  247 ;  Roman  form 
of,  252 ;  Luther  on,  255 ; 
Zwingli  and  Calvin  on, 
257;  the  creeds  on,  256; 
claims  of  Rome  as  to,  ex- 
ploded, 261 ;  and  "  apos- 
tolical succession  ",  262. 

Clement  of  Rome,  untheo- 
logical,  III ;  Second  Epis- 
tle of,  quoted.  155. 

Conscience,  supremacy  of, 
23;  self-condemnation  by, 

25. 

Consciousness,  defined.  16: 
reliable,  16;  the  individ- 
ual throws  light  upon  the 
universal,  17;  of  the 
Christian  peculiar  only  in 
its  objects,  18;  Christian, 
must  be  admitted  to  be 
possible,  18;  the  New 
Birth  a  matter  of,  22;  of 
God  (in  looser  sense  of 
the  word),  55, 

Corruption  of  human  na- 
ture, 30. 

Creeds,  the  historic,  testi- 
mony as  to  prevenient 
grace,  69;  on  the  work  of 


Christ,  227;  on  the  doc- 
trine of  the  church,  256. 

Development,  historical,  of 
Christian  theology,  iii; 
motive  forces  of,  112; 
stages  of,  113;  element  of 
succession,  114;  criteria 
of  a  sound,  115. 

Diognetus,  Epistle  to,  cited, 
154;  quoted,  157,   159- 

Doctrine  distinguished  from 
theology,  i ;  grows  out  of 
experience  by  a  definite 
process,  iio. 

Dogma,  rise  of  according 
to  Kaftan,  13,  127;  actual 
rise  of,  iii. 

Duty,  choice  of,  21 ;  idea  of, 
23 ;  acquires  supreme  alle- 
giance, 28;  relations  to 
actual  life,  50;  to  Christ, 
134;  embraces  faith  in 
Christ,  139. 

Edwards  and  his  North- 
ampton church  had  the 
Spirit,  267,  269. 

Evolution,  theories  of,  can- 
not explain  the  New 
Birth,  45. 

Experience,  a  source  of  doc- 
trine. 3;  history,  4;  made 
by  Frank  the  sole  basis  of 
theology,  9;  employed  by 
Ritschl,  10;  earliest  con- 
tributions to  doctrine  by. 
SS ;  forms  in  which  it  ap- 
pears, 35;  certainty  at- 
taching to,  37;  possesses 
no  infallibility,  ^  38; 
sources  outside  the  indi- 
vidual, 87;  larger  mean- 
ing of,  88;  deposited  in 
the  New  Testament,  89; 
not  superseded  by  the  Bi- 


Index 


281 


ble,  108 ;  embodied  in  his- 
tory, no;  employed  by 
Athanasius,  169;  voice  of, 
on  the  Trinity,  172;  of  ef- 
fects of  the  doctrine  of 
the  divinity  of  Christ, 
182;  transcended  by  it- 
self, 189;  does  not  apply 
equally  to  all  topics,  238; 
limitations  of,  238;  not 
in  favor  of  Romanizing 
elements,  253 ;  bears  on 
the  doctrine  of  sanctifica- 
tion,  240;  not  for  Roman 
elements  in  development 
of  church,  253;  doctrine 
of  church,  259;  explodes 
the  doctrine  of  "  apostol- 
ical succession  ",  262 ; 
summary  of  conclusions 
as  to,  274;  remaining 
problems  as  to,  275. 

Faith,  saving,  Schleimacher 
on,  6;  Frank's  conception 
of,  8;  forms  of,  19;  de- 
fined, 21. 

Fiske,  John,  72. 

Forgiveness,  origin  of,  60; 
objective,  62;  paradox  in- 
volved in,  173,  196. 

Frank,  in;  "System  of 
Christian  Certainty",  8; 
Hamack  on,  12. 

Generation  of  the  Son,  160, 
161. 

Giddings,  F.  H.,  cited,  47; 
on  "  survival  ",  121. 

God,  proof  of  his  existence 
from  experience,  42-57 ; 
personality  of,  54;  holi- 
ness of,  56;  impartial 
love  of,  56;  unlimited, 
56;  this  proof  exclusively 
Christian,    57 ;    certainty 


of  his  existence,  60;  Kaf- 
tan's form  of  the  proof, 
'JT,  first  known  through 
Christ,  134;  fully  re- 
vealed only  by  Christ, 
141. 
Good,  highest  as  developed 
in  history.  Kaftan's  view, 

Green,  J.  R.,  quoted,  263, 
267;    cited,  265. 

Gregory  of  Nyssa,  on  ran- 
som to  the  devil,  219. 

Grotius  on  the  atonement, 
226. 

Guilt,  idea  of,  25;  magni- 
tude of,  seen  at  Calvary, 
202. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  and 
evangelical  truth,  65. 

Habit,  personal,  29;  law  of, 
29;  racial,  30. 

Harmony  of  soul  conse- 
quent upon  the  New 
Birth,  61. 

Harnack,  on  the  course  of 
church  history,  125 ;  as  to 
early  Christology,  155 ; 
date  of  n  Clement,  155; 
agreement  with  Thomas- 
ius  on  Athanasius,  171 ; 
on  the  degeneration  of 
the    church,    247;     cited, 

257. 

Hegel,  influence  in  theol- 
ogy* 7;  idea  of  God,  59. 

Hermas,  cited,  154. 

History,  use  of  in  theology, 
V ;  use  of  secular,  31 ; 
Christian  judgment  on 
historical  facts,  36 ; 
Christian,  37 ;  employ- 
ment of  creeds  as  em- 
bodying, 69;  a  great 
source   of   Christian   ex- 


282 


Index 


perience,  i  lo ;  develop- 
ment off  theology  in,  iii; 
stages  of  development, 
113;  criteria  of  criticism, 
115;  Ritschlian  view  of, 
125 ;  Kaftan's  criticisms, 
126;  doctrine  of  the  per- 
son of  Christ,  153;  exam- 
ple of  completeness,  163; 
application  of  the  criteria 
to,  164;  doctrine  of  the 
atonement,  219. 

Holy  Spirit  and  the  course 
of  history,  13. 

Hymns  of  the  church,  as  to 
the  divinity  of  Christ, 
179;  as  to  the  work  of 
Christ,  197,  203,  206. 

Ignatius,  untheological, 

in;  quoted,  154,  158. 

Irenaeus,  quoted,  159;  his 
canon  as   to  the  church, 

24s. 
Isaiah  fifty-third,  interpret- 
ation   of,    212;    experien- 
tial element  in,  213. 

James,  Prof.  William, 
quoted,  17. 

John,  experiential  ap- 
proach to  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  145. 

Jowett.  cited,  58. 

Justification  by  faith,  proved 
by  experience,  63;  arose 
historically  from  experi- 
ence, 63;  Paul's  doctrine 
of,  149. 

Justin  Martyr,  cited,  155; 
on  the  generation  of  the 
Son,  160. 

Kaftan,  head  of  the  Ritsch- 
lian school,  10;  criticism 


of  Frank,  12;  on  sin,  27; 
origin  of  the  New  Birth, 
72;  on  knowledge,  74; 
proof  of  God,  77;  revives 
J.  S.  Mill's  theories,  80; 
on  causation,  80;  on 
mathematics,  84;  on  rev- 
elation, 95;  on  church 
history,  126;  abandons 
Ritschl's  position  on  the 
Trinity,  180;  on  the 
atonement,  233. 

Kant,  influences  Ritschl,  9; 
idea  of  God,  59. 

Kingdom  of  evil,  32,  42;  of 
good,  41 ;  influence  of  the 
evil,  43. 

"  Know  ",  use  of  this  word 
by  John,  144. 

Knowledge,  not  a  religious 
good  in  itself,  74;  Kaftan 
on  "  Erkennen  " ,  and 
"Wissen",  78;  "Wis- 
sen"  impossible,  79;  the- 
ory of,  83. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  264. 

Law,  its  ends  met  by  the 
atonement,  204. 

Le  Conte,  immanent  causa- 
tion, 72. 

Logos-doctrine,  in  Diogne- 
tus,  159;  in  Justin,  160. 

Luther,  3;  cited,  63; 
quoted,  63;  on  the 
church,  255. 

Manning  H.  E.,  Cardinal, 
but  little  affected  in  his 
religious  life  by  Roman- 
ism, 254. 

Martineau,  quoted,  146. 

Mathematics,  Kaftan's  view 
of,  84. 

"  Means  of  grace  ",  relation 
of  to  the  New  Birth,  51. 


Index 


283 


Mill,  J.  S.,  his  theories  re- 
vived by  Kaftan,  80. 

Missions  and  non-prelatical 
Christianity,  271. 

New  Birth,  the  ultimate  fact 
of  experience,  21 ;  a  mat- 
ter of  consciousness,  22; 
matter  of  certainty,  22; 
analysis  of,  23;  originat- 
ing source  of,  41 ;  source 
not  the  powers  of  man, 
42 ;  not  the  world,  43 ;  not 
a  product  of  evolution, 
45 ;  not  the  sinner  him- 
self, 49;  mediated  by  fi- 
nite agencies,  51;  person- 
ally guided,  52;  from 
God,  57 ;  testimony  of  the 
creeds,  69;  Kaftan  on, 
^2.;     as    a    concrete    fact, 

133. 

New  England  testimony  to 
the  deity  of  the  Son,  165. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  on  cri- 
teria of  a  sound  histori- 
cal development,  115; 
cited,  253. 

New  Testament,  first  use 
of,  32,  36;  a  source  of 
Christian  experience,  89; 
normative  source,  90 ; 
authority  of,  93. 

Nice,  Council  of,  discus- 
sions at,  and  result,  162; 
subsequent  discussions, 
163;  Athanasius  at,  166; 
full  result  of.  171. 

Origen,  his  Christology, 
162. 

Paradox  involved  in  for- 
giveness, 173;  solved  by 
the  atonement,  196,  204. 

Paul,       experiential       ap 


proach  to  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  146;  to  the  doc- 
trine of  justification,  149; 
appeals  to  experience, 
150;  identity  of  his 
Christology  with  John's, 
151. 

Pelagius,  66;  history  of  his 
doctrine,  120. 

Person  of  Christ,   133. 

Philosophy,  danger  from, 
to  theology,  14. 

Piety,  promoted  by  the  doc- 
trine of  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  182. 

Plan,  evident  in  the  orig- 
ination of  the  New  Birth, 
54 ;  argument  therefrom 
to  intelligence  in  the  uni- 
verse, 54. 

Plato,  idea  of  God,  58. 

Pre-existence  of  Christ,  5, 
92,  94,  98,  99,  100,  176. 

Prevenient  grace,  65 ;  de- 
fined, 66;  universal  testi- 
mony of  the  creeds  to, 
69;  confirmed  by  surviv- 
al, 120. 

Principle  of  a  theological 
system,  12,  14 ;  of  this  in- 
vestigation, 19;  why  cor- 
rect, 22. 

Propitiation  by  Christ, 
meaning  of,  216, 

Puritanism  and  the  Spirit. 
2.^2),  ^^7- 

Responsibility,  idea  of,  24; 
upheld  by  all  thinkers, 
24;  Spencer  teaches,  25; 
and  guilt,  25. 

Revelation,  Ritschlian  con- 
ceptions of,  95 ;  essential 
elements  of,  100;  Christ's 
work  of.  185. 

^  itschl,    characteristics    of 


284 


Index 


his  theology,  9;  relation 
to  experience,  10;  cited, 
58;  canon  as  to  the  Bible, 
90;  method  with  the  Bi- 
ble. 94;  revelation,  95; 
Ritschlian  view  of  his- 
torical development,  125 ; 
Ritschl  as  a  historian, 
126;  sees  no  "interest" 
in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  175;  view  of  the 
person  of  Christ,  176; 
criticised,  177 ;  Ritschlian 
objection  to  the  authority 
of  the  Bible,  194. 

Roman  Catholic  elements 
in  Protestant  theology 
according  to  Kaftan,  74. 
126. 

Romanes,  G.  J.,  72. 

Rome  has  no  monopoly  of 
the  divine  spirit,  261. 

Sacrifice,  O.  T.  doctrine  of, 
208;  N.  T.  doctrine  as  to 
Christ's,  215. 

Salvation,  definition  of,  61. 

Sanctification  and  experi- 
ence, 240;  and  conscious- 
ness, 241 ;  agent  of,  242 ; 
fact  of,  a  proof  of  the 
presence  of  the  Spirit, 
and  of  the  existence  of 
the  church,  243;  evi- 
dences of  in  the  Protes- 
tant churches,  259;  the 
proof  of  the  church.  273. 

Schleiermacher,  theologian 
of  experience,  5 ;  meaning 
lof  his  "  feeling  of  de- 
pendence ",  5 ;  services, 
S;  defects,  5. 

Scriptures,  as  a  source  of 
doctrine,  iv;  translation 
of,  259,  271 ;  illustration 
of,  270.     See  "  Bible  ". 


Sin,  generic  idea  of,  26; 
pervasiveness  of,  27 ; 
Kaftan  on,  27;  universal, 
31 ;  organized  power  of, 
31 ;  greatness  of,  seen  at 
Calvary,  202. 

Smith,  George  Adam, 
quoted.  212,  213. 

Socinus,  on  the  atonement, 
224. 

Spencer,  insists  on  respon- 
sibility, 25;  referred  to, 
46. 

Stearns,  "  Evidence  of 
Christian  Experience ", 
14;  quoted,  15. 

Survival,  argumentative 
value  of,  120;  illustrated 
from  Sociology.  122;  ex- 
amples of,  in  New  Eng- 
land, 165. 

Subordination  of  the  Son, 
161. 

System  in  evangelical  doc- 
trine, 2;  whole  system 
involved  in  the  first  an- 
alysis of  the  New  Birth, 
85. 

"  Teaching  of  the  Twelve 
Apostles ",  contents  of, 
III;  Johannine  atmos- 
phere of,  112;  cited,  154, 
245. 

"  Testimony  of  the  Spirit ", 
argument  from,  iv.,  104; 
criticised,  105 ;  objec- 
tions to  the  argument, 
107;  developed  argument 
embraces  the  whole  Bi- 
ble, 189;  resume  of  the 
argument,  189;  objection 
that  it  gives  no  true  au- 
thority,  190. 

Texts  cited,  quoted,  or  dis- 
cussed : — 


Index 


285 


Exodus  xxiv.  5-8,      216. 
xxiv.  6,  7,      187. 
Leviticus  xvi.  21,      211. 
xix.  18,      187. 
Deuteronomy  vi.  5,     187. 
Proverbs  viii.  22,     168. 
Isaiah  liii.  5,  6,    212. 
Matthew  iv.  10,     135. 
iv.  17,     187. 
V.  44,     135- 
vii.  29,     186. 
X.    32,    33,    37- 

39,      143- 
X.  37,  39,     135 
X.  47,     186. 
xvi.  18,     243. 
xxii.    37,      135, 

187. 
XXV.  46,     138. 
xxvi.  28,    215. 
Mark  ix.  48,    138. 

X.  45,     197,  215. 
XV.  24-38,    143. 
Luke  ix.  23,    198. 

XV.  19,  21,      136. 
XV.  22,  137. 
John  i.  I,     145,  165. 
i.  4,     186. 
i.  3,     151. 
i.  S,     32. 
i.  14,     145,  146. 
i.  29,     197,  215. 
i.  49,     152. 
iii.  II,     186. 
iii.  13,     145. 
iii.   14,     216. 
iii.  16,    58,  137,  186. 
iii.  18,    32,  143. 
iii.    19,     32. 
iii.  31,  32.     186. 
iv.  24,    58. 
V.  20,     186. 
V.  22,  23,     145. 
vi.  35,  40,     145. 
vni.  12.  58,     145. 
viii.  38,  40,     186. 


John  X.  25,     145. 
xi.  25,     14s. 
xiv.  6,     145. 
xiv.  9,    59,  141- 
xiv.  15,    186. 
XV.  13,     137- 
xvi.  9,  139-  143- 
xvi.  13,     188. 
xvi.  6,  13.  14,     186. 
XX.  28,     152. 
Acts  ii.  33,  3^,    152. 
ii.  47,    244. 
vii.  56,     152. 
xvii.  31,     147. 
Romans  iii.  8,    247. 

iii.   19-26,     149- 

iii.  25,     216,  217. 

v.  i-ii,     149- 

v.  10,    217. 

V.    15,     147. 

vii.  passim,    148. 

viii.  I,     32. 

viii.  3,     147. 

viii.   15-26,     174. 

viii.  passim,  148. 

ix.  I,  3,  5,    147. 

X.  21,     136. 

1  Corinthians  i.  18,    197. 

ii.  2,  134, 
197. 

ii.  16,    188. 

X.  3,     187. 

xi.  23,   147. 

XV.  21,  147- 

XV.  24,  28, 
152. 

2  Corinthians  i.   3,    59. 

V.  21,    147, 

217. 
xiii.  4,  147. 
Galatians  i.  i,   89. 
i.  8,    188. 
i.  12,    89. 
iii.  2,    63,  150. 
iii.  3,    150. 
iii.  13,     217. 


286 


Index 


Ephesians  i.  20-23,     152. 
Philippians  ii.  5-11,    152. 
ii,  9,   10,  II. 

145. 
iii.  10,    145. 
Colossians  i.  isff,     151. 
Hebrews  i.   1-14,      152. 
ii.  10,    147,  152. 
ii.  17,  18,     147. 
ix.  14,     152. 
James  ii.  i,     152. 

1  Peter  i.  11,    152,  188. 

iii.  22,     152. 

2  Peter  iii.  18,     152. 
I  John   i.  I,     143. 

i.  1-4,     145. 
i.  5,     143,  144. 
ii.  2,    218. 
ii.  3,  6,  13,  18,  29, 

144. 
iii.  I,  3.  8,  16,    143. 
iii.  2,  6,  14,  15,  19, 

24,    144. 
IV.   6,    7,    13,    16. 

144- 

iv.  8,  143. 

iv.  10,  59,  143. 

iv.  14,  144. 


I  John  V.    2,    13,    15,    18, 
19,  20,     144. 
V.  19,    32. 
V.  20,     145. 
Thomasius,    v ;     theologian 
of  experience.  7;    quoted 
on  Athanasius,  169,  171. 
Trinity,      development      of 
doctrine    of,    was    sound, 
119;    argument  for  from 
experience,    172;    Biblical 
doctrine,  175;  Ritschlians 
on,  175. 

Unitarianism.  New  Eng- 
land, root  of.  121 ;  prepa- 
ration for,  269. 

Watson,  John,  illustrates 
the  absurdity  of  "  apos- 
tolical   succession  ",   272. 

Wesleyanism  and  the  Spir- 
it, 265. 

World,  Christian  view  of, 
31. 

Zwingli,  on  the  church,  257. 


ID   lo^-'43 


